/ 


X.' 


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THE  LIBRARY 
OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


THE 


GOLD  FIELDS.. 


ST.  DOMINGO  ; 


A    DESJRIPTION    OF   THE   AGRICULTURAL,    COMMER- 
CIAL  AND   OTHER   ADVANTAGES   OF 
DOMINICA. 


AND    CONTAIN  IXa 

SOME  ACCOTINT  OF  ITS  CLIMATB,  SEASONS,  SOIL, 

MOUNTAINS,  AND  ITS  PRINCIPAIi  CITIES,  RIVERS,  BAYS,   AND 

IIARliORS. 


BY 

W. 

S.  COURTNEY, 

NEW- YORK  : 

ESQ. 

PUBLISH  ED 

BY   ANSON 

P.    NORTON, 

111  Nassau  Street 

1860. 

Entered  according 
Nortiin,  intheCleik' 
of  New  Vorlc. 

to  llie  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  I860,  by  Anson  P. 
.  Officeof  the  District  Court  of  ihe  i-outhem  Pistrict 

r 


F 

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CONTENTS 


Pkeface,  ----..,.5 
Introductory  Remarks,  -  -  ...  7 
Section  I. — Gcograpliy  and  Topography,  -  -  17 
Section  II. — Brief  History  of  the  Spanisli  Part,  -  26 
Section  III. — Tlio  Principal  Rivers  and  Ba^'s,  -  47 
Section  IV. — The  Princijial  Cities  and  Towns,  -  59 
Section  V. — The  Climate,  Seasons  and  Temperature,  73 

Section  VI.— The  Soil. 86 

Section  VII. — The  Staples,  Exports  and  Products,  94 
Section  VIII.— The  Fruits  and  Edibles,  -  -  104 
Section  IX.— The  Gold-Fields  of  Dominica,  -  -  108 
Section  X. — Conclusive  Sumiuary,         ...  131 


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'32611 


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PREFACE. 


The  foUov/ing  pages  have  been  written  witii 
a  view  to  interest  the  American  pubHc  in  the 
Mineral,  Agricuhural,  Commercial  and  otiier 
resources  of  Dominica.  For  the  last  two  years 
the  Author  has  been  familiar  with  the  subject, 
and  from  information  derived  from  the  early 
Histories  and  Colonial  accounts,  from  much 
and  continual  converse  with  gentlemen  long 
residents  of  the  Republic,  from  visitors  and 
explorers  recently  returned  hence,  as  v/ell  as 
from  the  voluminous  correspondence  of  citi- 
zens of  the  United  States  at  present  engaged 
in  explorations  and  mining  enterprises  there, 
he  now  lays  the  result  of  his  researches  and 
inquiries  before  the  Reader,  who  will  please 
excuse  the  manner  for  the  sake  of  the  matter. 

W.  S.  C. 
Nkw  York,  March,  i860. 


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ti0i  m$m  mwu, 


ESPECIALLY  DESIGNED  FOR 

DEIVING  COTTON  GINS,  MILLS,  SAWS,  THRESHING 
MACHINES,  ETC. 


This  valuable  invention  is  a  great  improvement  on  the 
Horse  Powers  now  in  use  ;  it  is  being  extensively  introduced 
in  many  of  the  States  South,  and  is  giving  the  greatest  satis- 
faction. 

PRICE,  ^133  00  and  $150  00. 


^  ■»«»».  ^ 


e:  3S1  o  e:  Xj  Si  X  o  n. 


MADE  OF  THE  BEST  FRENCH  BURR  STONE. 


This  unique  invention  is  now  acknowledged  to  be  the  beat 
Mill  in  the  market.  It  is  in  use  in  most  of  the  Southern 
States,  and  winning  golden  opinions ;  as  a  Feed  Mill,  no 
other  will  compare  with  it,  and  it  does  as  much  work  as  the 
flat  stone  mill,  with  only  one-half  the  power  !  no  gearing  is 
required  to  set  it  up,  simply  a  belt  connecting  with  the 
Horse,  "Water  or  Steam  Power!  it  is  compact  and  perfectly 
simple ;  no  skill  is  required  to  keep  it  in  order,  and  it  wUl 
last  a  life  time. 

Agency,  No.  45  Gold-Street,  New-York. 

Cu'culars  of  Horse  Power  and  Mill  sent  by 

J.  A.  BENNET. 


F 

CBS 


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INTRODUCTORY    REMARKS. 


The  main  object  of  the  following  pages  is  to 
disclose  to  the  view  of  the  American  reader,  a 
field  of  vast  and  useful  enterprise,  as  unsuspected 
as  it  is  inexhaustible,  and  whicli  is  within  the 
easy  reach  of  the  energies  of  the  people  of  the 
United  States.  No  selfish,  pecuniary  or  ambi-" 
tious  motive  induces  the  writer  to  lay  this  enter- 
prize  before  the  United  States  public,  unless  it 
be  the  ambition  to  do  the  greatest  possible  good 
to  the  greatest  possible  number  of  his  fellow 
men. 

No  thoughtful  and  well  informed  person,  will 
at  this  day  deny  that  an  inherent  virtue  of  our 
people  is  the  unwearied  determination  with 
which  they  apply  themselves  to  exploring  new 
fields  of  industry,  trade,  commerce,  manufac- 
tures, art  and  skill,  and  the  tenacious  perseve- 
rance they  display  in  actualizing  them  when  as- 
certained to  be  practicable.     There  is  a  cause  be- 


t 


8  DOMINICA. 

hind  this,  unceasingly  prompting  its  exercise. 
There  is  now,  and  has  been  for  years  past,  among 
the  people  of  the  United  States,  a  surplus  of 
mental  and  physical  energy  seeking  a  proper 
market,  outlet,  or  theatre  of  activity,  and  which, 
in  many  individual  instances,  from  the  mere 
lack  of  such  a  theatre,  has  reacted  and  consumed 
itself,  or  lapsed  into  indolence  and  inactivity. 
When  Texas  was  first  thrown  open  to  this  energy 
it  drifted  thither  until  it  supplied  the  demand 
there.  The  Mexican  war  drew  off  a  large  mass  of 
it,,  which,  however,  soon  returned  upon  us.  Then 
California  supplied  the  demand  but  for  a  brief 
period.  Then  the  settlement  of  Kansas  operated 
as  a  safety-valve  for  it  a  few  years  more.  The 
amount  of  this  suii^lus  energy  we  have  now  on 
hand  is  evinced  by  the  throngs  which  crowded 
to  Pike's  Peak,  a  year  ago,  when  its  captivating 
promises  were  first  held  out.  But,  as  is  often 
the  case,  in  our  eager  and  hasty  search  after  new 
Eldorados  or  area,  in  which  to  expand  this  ener- 
gy, we  have  incautiously  overlooked  what  the 
writer  is  profoundly  convinced  is  far  the  most 
feasible,  certain,  safe  and  remunerative  of  any 
which  for  years  past,  has  been  providentially 
opened  to  the  industry  and  skill  of  our  people. 


INTKODUCTORT    EEMAKKS.  9 

It  consists  in  the  development  of  the 'vast  mineral^ 
agricultural,  mamtfacturing  and  commercial  re- 
scour  ces  of  the  Spanish  part  of  the  Island  of 
Santo  Domingo. 

It  seems  scarcely  credible  that  such  vast  wealth, 
and  especially  mineral  wealth,  should  have  lain 
there  so  easily  attainable,  for  so  many  years  and 
almost  within  the  suburbs  of  our  great  commer- 
cial cities,  without  exciting  at  least  the  cupidity, 
if  not  the  enterprize  of  the  Yankee.  The  im- 
mense mineral  resources  and  deposits  of  the 
place,  scarcely  tapped  or  "  prospected  "  by  the 
er.rly  Spaniards,  although  they  took  thence  mil- 
lions in  gold,  is  now  an  almost  forgotten  tradi- 
tion, and  the  agricultural  capabilities  of  the  island, 
although  proverbial  and  soliciting  the  industry 
of  the  Anglo  Saxon,  has  excited  as  little  regard. 
There  is  perhaps  no  explored  and  settled  district 
in  tlie  Kew  World,  in  regard  to  which  such  gross 
ignorance  prevails  among  the  masses  of  our  pop- 
ulation. They  have,  it  is  true,  a  general  idea  of 
the  locality  ;  they  are  somewhat  familiar  with 
the  name,  and  have  some  dim  and  confused  no- 
tions touching  the  govei'nment  and  the  people. 
The}'  have  a  tradition  that  the  climate  is  un- 
healthy ;  that  deadly  fevers  and  various  forms  of 


10  DOMINICA, 

eruptive  diseases  prevail  there  to  an  enormous 
extent ;  that  the  people  are  semi-barbarous  ;  that 
the  mines  have  been  for  ages  exhausted,  the  cities 
depopulated  and  in  ruins;  that  there  are  great  de- 
vastating earthquakes  there,  and  hurricanes  and 
floods,  and  fires,  crocodiles,  serpents,  scorpions,  . 
noxious  insects,  robbers,  outlaws,  brigands,  etc., 
etc.     They  have  little  accurate  and  definite  infor- 
mation in  regard  to  all  these  particulars,  in  the 
absence  of  which    their  imaginations  and  the  ex- 
aggerated accounts  of  travelers,  have    peopled 
the  terra  incognito  with  all.  these  frightful  and 
forbidding  details.     Add  to  this  the  notion  which 
has  been  extensivel}'^  propagated  in  the  States, 
that  the  Government  and  people  are  jealous  of 
foreigners,   especially  from    the   United  States, 
coming  among  them ;  that  they  have  restricted 
and  even  prohibited  emigration  thither  ;  that  per- 
son and  property  are  there  unprotected  and  inse- 
cure ;  that  there  are  no  inducements  held  out  to 
the  people  and  Capital  of  the  United  States  to  go 
thither,  etc.,  etc.,  and  the  enigma  of  its  teeming 
savannahs,  fertile   plains,  and  mountains,  rich  in 
all  the  valuable  minerals,  lying  waste  and  unde- 
veloped by  Yankee  industry,  ingenuity  and  skill, 
is  measurably  solved. 


INTEODUCTORY    KEMAKKS.  11 

But  tlie  course  of  political,  social  and  industri- 
al events  in  the  Spanish  part  of  tlie  Island,  for  a 
series  of  years  jmst,  have  been  tending  to  the  in- 
evitable issue  of  the  introduction  of  American 
capital  and  industry  there,  and  so  obvious  is  now* 
the  fact,  that  it  is  not  only  conceded  by  the  au- 
thorities and  people  as  unavoidable,  but  they 
look  forward  to  the  realization  of  it  with  the 
greatest  cheer.  Tliey  now  look  to  the  energy 
and  enterprise  of  the  people  of  the  States  to  re- 
deem their  part  of  the  Island  from  the  waste  and 
comparative  desolation  into  which  it  has  fallen, 
and  would  not  only  cordially  welcome  any  eflbrt 
that  would  lawfully  be  made  by  us  in  that  direc- 
tion, but  would  themselves  afford  every  facility 
to,  and  "^ooperate  with  us  in  carrying  it  out. 

The  fact  has  become  palpable  of  recent  years, 
that  if  the  colossal  resources  of  the  Dominican 
part  of  that  Island,  are  ever  fullj^  developed,  and 
rendered  subservient  to  the  interests  of  humanity 
as  well  as  to  the  certain  and  abundant  opulence, 
of  those  who  undertake  it,  it  roust  be  done  by 
the  Anglo-American.  He  alone  possesses  the 
boldness,  the  perseverance,  the  genius  and  the 
skill  adequate  to  the  accomplishment  of  such  a 
purpose.     His  restless,  active  spirit,  and  his  tena- 


12  DOMINICA. 

cioiis.  resolve  to  succeed  wlien  success  is  possible, 
peculiaily  lit  him  for  the  undertaking.  He  })0S- 
sesses  the  ways  and  the  means,  but  hitherto  lack- 
ing the  knowledge  of  the  facts,  he  has  lacked  also 
the  will.  Besides,  he  has  not  to  traverse  oceans 
and  mountains,  and  sandy  plains,  thousands  of 
miles,  to  reach  these  new  fields  of  enterprize,  but 
he  is  almost  Avithin  hailing  distance  of  them. 
They  are  but  a  few  days  sail  from  New  York, 
and  he  passes  them  a  hundred  times  during  the 
year,  in  going  to  and  from  California. 

It  is  true  that  the  Government  has  hitherto 
been  somewhat  unstable,  and  subject  to  occasion- 
al insurrections  and  revolutions.  But  ever  since 
the  Spaniards  of  this  part  of  the  island,  in  1844, 
freed  themselves  from  the  yoke  of  the  Black  Em- 
peror of  Hayti,  Herrard,  none  of  these  insurrec- 
tions and  revolutions  have  been  at  all  destructive 
of  life  and  property,  and  what  is  notorious,  the 
private  rights  of  the  resident  foreigners  there, 
during  these  intestinal  commotions,  unless  they 
have  imprudently  involved  themselves  in  the  po- 
litical troubles,  have  ever  been  sacredly  respect- 
ed. When  the  people  of  the  United  States  be- 
come truly  acquainted  with  the  social  and  politi- 


INTKODUCTORY    REMARKS.  13 

cal  relations  of  the  people  of  the  Dominican  Re- 
public, that  information  will  dissipate  all  appre- 
hension of  insecurity  as  to  their  persons  and  pro- 
perty there.  Tliese  insurrections  and  revolutions 
are  almost  exclusively  confined  to  the  few  politi- 
cians, government  officials  and  hired  soldiers,  and 
scarcely  ever  involve  the  masses  of  the  people. 
The  revolutionary  changes  from  one  set  of  politi- 
cal rulers  to  another,  rarely  affect  the  moral,  civil 
and  social  conditions  of  the  masses.  No  radical 
change  is  wrought  by  them  in  the  civil  statics  of 
the  citizen,  and  they  do  not  at  all  affect  the  con- 
dition of  the  foreign  resident.  Throughout  them 
all  his  property  and  his  person  are  intact.  There 
is  a  vast  conservative  social  element  among  the 
old  Spanish  residents  of  Dominica,  which  ope- 
rates as  an  effectual  restraint  upon  any  official  or 
revolutionary  spoliation,  by  either  the  de  facto  or 
de  jure  authorities.  This  element  of  the  popula- 
tion is  habitually  honest,  conservative  and  order- 
ly. The  old  Spanish  blood,  proverbially  honest 
and  honorable,  flows  in  their  veins,  rendering  the 
social  and  civil  relations  of  the  people  permanent 
and  secure ;  so  that  the  7'eal  Government  of  Do- 
minica— the  common  law  of  the  land — is  the  so- 


14  DOMINICA. 

cial  habits,  tlie  customs  and  character  of  this 
chiss  of  her  people.  There  is  not  an  instance  on 
record,  or  within  the  recollection  of  any  inhabi- 
tant since  the  Eepnblic  began,  of  a  theft  or  rob- 
bery having  been  committed  within  the  limits  of 
the  State  ;  and  even  in  times  of  revolution,  remit- 
tances of  thousands,  contained  in  saddle-bags, 
slung  over  mules,  with  a  single  messenger,  con- 
tinue to  be  sent  from  Port  Platte  and  Santiago, 
to  Santo  Domingo  City,  without  the  loss  of  a 
single  dollar.  The  writer  has  been  assured  by 
one  of  these  messengers  himself  that  he  has  often, 
in  passing  by  the  army,  camped  in  the  tents  with 
the  soldiers,  laying  his  treasures  down  beside 
ninj  on  the  ground,  and  that  at  the  inns  and 
peasants'  huts  he  would  simply  hang  his  bags 
over  a  pin  or  pole  in  the  public  room  during 
night!  Travelers,  utter  strangers  to  each  other, 
meet  at  the  inns,  lay  their  money,  watches  and 
other  valuables  together  on  the  table,  swing  their 
hammocks  in  the  same  room,  retire,  some  rising 
to  pursue  their  different  journeys,  while  others 
Bleep,  and  a  single  instance  of  a  larceny  under  such 
circumstances  of  temptation,  has  never  been 
known.     If  an  article  of  any  value  is  found,  it  is 


INTRODUCTORY  REMARKS.  15 

■posted  and  published  and  religiously  kept  for 
months  and  even  ^'ears,  for  the  true  owner.  lie- 
cently,  a  stranger  amongst  them  died  at  an  ob- 
scure country  village;  lie  was  decently  interred, 
and  all  his  personal  effects,  down  to  the  most 
trifling  article,  were  sacredly  kept,  and  months 
afterwards  returned  to  his  relations.  Covetous- 
ness,  or  the  desire  to  obtain  and  possess  unlaw- 
fully the  property  of  others,  even  to  the  most  in- 
significant article,  never  seems  to  enter  their 
heads.  What  a  commentary  these  facts  are 
upon  our  Courts  of  Sessions  here  ! 

In  treating  more  at  large  upon  the  subject 
which  it  is  the  design  of  this  little  work  to  un- 
fold and  discuss,  we  will  divide  the  work  into 
sections,  indicating  under  separate  headings  the 
specific  matters  contained  in  each ;  and,  of  course, 
we  shall  begin  with 


SECTIOI^  I. 

The  Geography  and  Topography  of  the  Island. 

Santo  Domingo,  lying  at  the  entrance  of  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico,  is  the  second  in  size  of  the  lee- 
ward group  of  the  West  India  islands,  and  has 
been  aptly  denominated  the  "  Queen  of  the 
Antilles,"  It  lies  between  i!ie  eighteenth  and 
twentieth  ]>arallels  of  North  l:itir:;de,  and  between 
the  third  and  ninth  parallels  ol  longitude,  East  of 
the  meridian  of  Washington.  The  nineteenth 
parallel  of  North  latitude  intersects  it  through 
the  middle.  Its  area,  including  the  islands  of 
Tortuga,  Gonaives,  &c.,  is  about  27,690  square 
miles,  or  nearly  as  large  as  Scotland,  or  about  as 
lajrge  as  North  Carolina ;  its  extreme  length 
being  about  400  miles  and  its  greatest  width 
about  150  miles.  The  Eastern  part,  comprising 
about  three-fifths  of  the  whole  island,  is  occupied 
by  the  Dominican  republic ;  and  the  Westerm 
part  by  the  Negro  empire  of    Hayti.      It  is  of 


18  DOMINICA. 

irregular  outline,  in  consequence  of  being  deeply 
indented  by  bays  and  inlets,  with  corresponding 
projections,  the  greatest  of  which  is  to  be  found 
on  the  South-Western  portion,  constituting  a 
promontory  or  headland  about  150  miles  long, 
and.  from  18  to  40  miles  wide.  It  is  intersected 
from  West  to  East  by  three  lofty  and  irregular 
chains  of  mountains,  connected  or  interlocked  at 
various  points  by  branches  or  offsets,  forming 
extensive  and  exceedingly  fertile  plains  or  savan- 
nahs, of  various  bights  and  depths,  between 
them. 

The  central  and  principal  chain  of  mountains, 
and  which  includes  the  loftiest  peaks,  of  which 
the  Ciboa  Mountains  (7,200  feet)  are  the  highest, 
commences  West  at  Cape  St.  Nicholas,  and,  run- 
ning in  an  E.  S.  Easterly  direction,  terminates 
at  Cape  Eugailo,  the  extreme  Eastern  point  of 
the  island.  Nearly  parallel  with  this  range,  and 
beginning  West,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Monte 
Christi,  another  chain  of  mountains  ranges  nearly 
along  the  North  coast,  until  it  terminates  abruptly 
East,  as  it  approaches  the  peninsula  of  Samana. 
There  then  follows  a  low,  swampy  and  marshy 
district,  the  bights  re-appearing  on  the  other 
gide   and  terminating   at  Cape   Samana.      It  is 


GEOGRAPHY  AND  TOrOGRAniY.        19 

evident  that,  in  former  times,  the  water  ran 
through  here,  so  that  what  is  now  swamp  was 
once  a  channel  or  inlet,  and  what  is  now  the 
Peninsula  of  Samana  was  once  an  island. 

Between  these  two  ranges  of  mountains,  be- 
ginning near  the  town  of  Santiago,  and  extend- 
ing to  the  Bay  of  Samana,  lies  "  La  Yega  Keal," 
or  the  Royal  Valle}',  200  miles  long,  and  varying 
in  width  from  15  to  30  miles,  furnishing  exten- 
sive pasture  lands  and  fabulously  rich  savannahs. 
This  magnificent  valley,  as  the  sequel  will  attest, 
for  fertility  of  soil,  salubrity  of  climate  and  its 
exuberant  productiveness  of  all  tropical  fruits, 
flowers  and  vegetation,  is,  perhaps,  not  equalled 
by  any  in  the  world. 

The  third  and  South  range  of  mountains, 
commences  West  at  Cape  Tiburon,  the  extreme 
Western  end  of  the  long  headland  above  men- 
tioned, and  running  East  along  the  whole  of  said 
headland  until  it  slopes  off  and  terminates  at  the 
river  Neiva,  about  eighty  miles  west  of  the 
ancient  city  of  St.  Domingo.  From  these  prin- 
cipal chains  of  mountains,  which  observe  a  gene- 
ral direction  from  East  to  West,  a  number  of 
secondary  chains,  as  before  observed,  shoot  off, 
which,  running  in  different  directions,  divide  the 


20  DOMINICA.. 

laud  betvv'een  them  into  vallejs  as  various  in 
depth  as  in  extent  and  figure.  These  valleys  are 
sometimes  again  divided  by  hills  and  tertiary 
ridges  as  various  as  are  the  valleys  they  divide. 
Those  of  the  secondary  chains  or  offsets,  which 
run  toward  the  sea  coast,  divide  the  intermedi- 
ate space  into  plains  of  various  figure  and  extent. 
The  Northern  and  middle  chains  of  mountains 
rise  in  hight  and  magnitude  from  the  East  of  the 
island,  Westward  for  about  eighty  miles,  when 
they  preserve  about  the  same  hight  for  about 
eighty  miles  further,  widening  as  they  approach 
the  West,  until,  about  the  middle  or  two-thirds  of 
the  distance  East  to  West,  the  mountains  seem 
piled  upon  each  other  in  confused  but  grand  sub- 
limity. Their  peaks,  some  of  them  sharp,  some 
round,  some  smoothly  conical,  and  others  rough 
and  irregular,  pierce  the  clouds.  At  a  distance 
they  appear  crowded  and  close  together,  but  when 
explored,  extensive  valleys,  savannahs,  and  plains 
separate  them  in  all  directions.  This  is  the  rea- 
son why  when  approaching  the  island,  especially 
from  the  North  or  West,  it  appears  rugged  and 
mountainous  beyond  all  description,  impressing 
the  spectator  with  the  belief  that  it  is  a  moun- 
tainous waste,  utterly  destitute  of  any  agricul- 


GEOGRAPHY  AND  TOPOGRAPHY.        21 

tural  susceptibilities,  while  it  is,  in  fact,  thickly 
interspersed  with  the  richest  valleys,  plains, 
slopes  and  savannahs,  where  the  vegetable 
kingdom  perennially  reproduces  itself  in  a 
thousand  forms,  and  in  riotous  profusion,  the 
mountains  themselves  being  covered  with  the 
darkest  forests,  and  the  greenest  foliage,  to  their 
very  tops. 

These  chains  of  lofty  mountains,  with  their 
branches  and  offshoots  ramifying  in  different 
directions,  are,  indeed,  the  causes  of  the  trans- 
cendant  fertility  of  the  soil.  In  the  early  geo-. 
logical  ages  of  the  world,  this  island  was  pecu- 
liarly volcanic  and  eruptive,  which  satisfactorily 
accounts  for  its  lofty  Sierras,  its  various  and  im- 
mense mineral  deposits,  and  the  unparalleled 
richness  of  the  soil,  which,  being  the  debris  of 
these  limestone  and  lava  mountains,  tempered 
by  the  decaying  vegetation  of  centui-ies,  is  un- 
surpassed by  any  soil  in  the  world.  These  moun- 
tains and  upland  valleys,  plains  and  savannahs, 
are  also  the  immense  reservoirs  of  those  waters, 
which,  by  innumerable  limpid  spriuiis,  cascades, 
waterfalls,  rivulets  and  rivers,  are  afterwards 
borne  in  every  direction.     They  also  break  the 


22  DOMINICA. 

violence  of  the  storms,  temper  the  rays  of  a 
scorching  sun,  purify  the  atmosphere,  and  in  a 
thousand  ways  multiply  the  resources  of  natural 
wealth. 

From  the  river  Neiva,  on  the  South  side  of  the 
island,  where  the  Southern  range  of  mountains 
slopes  off  and  terminates,  to  the  neighborhood  of 
St.  Domingo  city,  the  coast,  being  a  formation  of 
minute  shells  and  coral,  is  high  and  rocky,  with 
the  occasional  exceptions  of  the  mouths  of  some 
streams,  and  some  inlets  and  bays.  The  land 
rises  from  this  rocky  coast  to  a  considerable  dis- 
tance back  or  northward,  when  it  slopes  off  to- 
ward the  base  of  the-central  cliain  of  mountains^ 
forming  extensive  plains  and  savannahs,  divided 
or  intersected  by  the  secondary  ranges  branching 
off  in  a  Southern  direction  from  the  central  chain. 
The  country  around  about  St.  Domingo  city,  ex- 
tending Eastward  from  it  to  the  coast,  a  distance 
of  eighty  miles,  is  comparatively  level,  but  yet 
sufficiently  hilly  and  undulating  to  render  it 
picturesque  and  inviting,  and  to  prevent  the  soil 
from  either  becoming  too  dry  or  too  wet.  This 
district  is  called  "  los  llanos^''  {i.  e.  "  the  plains") 
and,  although  in  former  times  it  was  occupied  by 


GEOGKATHY  AND  TOPOGRAPHY.        2S 

a  number  of  sugar  and  tobacco  plantations,  it  is 
now  used  abnost  entirely  as  cattle  ranges. 
The  coast  from  St.  Domingo  city  Eastward  to 
Cape  Eugaiio,  is  flat  and  marshy.  At  the  Cape, 
the  Eastern  terminus  of  the  centra)  range  of 
mountains,  it  however  rises  somewhat,  but  not 
abruptly,  and  continues  to  preserve  thence  the 
same  characteristics  round  to  the  Bay  of  Samana. 
The  coast  around  the  Peninsula  of  Samana  is 
somewhat  high,  and  at  places  abrupt,  as  is  also 
the  case  still  Westward  to  Port  Platte.  Those 
abrupt  points  are  caused  by  the  terminations  of 
the  branch  ranges  of  mountains  that  run  off 
Northward  to  the  sea-coast. 

The  mountains  of  St.  Domingo  differ  almost 
as  much  in  their  geological  formation  as  they  do 
in  their  locations,  and  a  multitude  of  other  causes 
and  circumstances  also  render  them  different 
from  each  other.  Sometimes  those  separated  by 
very  narrow  limits  differ  so  radically  as  to  bo 
truly  striking.  Some  are  granite,  some  limestone, 
some  lava  of  various  strata  and  kinds,  some 
quartz,  and  some  even  of  salt.  The  summits  of 
some  of  them  are  of  hard  sandstone  or  granite ; 
some  are  covered  witli  layers  of  mould  of  differ- 


24  DOMINICA. 

eni  colors  and  density,  sometimes  mixed  with 
stones  of  different  degrees  of  hardness,  and  more 
or  less  calcinable,  and  some  of  them  of  various 
vitriiiable  substances.  But  general  observation 
has  proved  that  the  uniform  base  of  all  these 
mountains  is  of  granite  or  quartz.  There  are 
many  mountains  of  the  island  which,  by  the  con- 
fused mixture  of  the  materials  of  which  they  are 
composed,  and  by  the  singular  manner  in  which 
their  layers  are  placed,  incontestibly  demonstrate 
that  they  have  undergone,  in  some  remote  period, 
the  most  violent  telluric  agitations.  The  different 
inclinations  of  the  strata ;  their  confused  and 
wedged-up  position ;  great  openings  in  the 
earth ;  yawning  chasms ;  mountains  evidently 
rent  asunder  ;  lofty  and  sharp  ridges,  with  abrupt 
terminations  and  cliffs  ;  enormous  masses  fallen 
down,  displaced  or  turned  upside  down,  present 
this  cause  to  the  mind  of  every  one  who  reflects 
upon  these  terrific  disturbances. 

In  this  synoptical  resume  of  the  geography 
and  topography  of  the  island,  the  writer  has 
purposely  omitted  any  particular  mention  of  the 
nature  and  constitution  of  the  soil,  the  rivers, 
bays   and   inlets,  the  fauna   and  flora,  and   the 


GEOGRAPHY  AND  TOPOGRAPHY.        25 

mineral  deposits,  except  so  far  as  mention  of 
some  of  them  was  necessarily  involved  in  the 
treatment  of  the  subject  under  review,  intending 
to  treat  them  more  fully  under  their  appropriate 
sections. 


SECTION  11. 

Brief  History  of  the  Spanish  jpart  of  the  Island. 

Santo  Domingo  was  discovered  by  Columbus, 
on  his  first  voyage  to  the  New  World,  on  the 
fifth  day  of  December  1492,  and  from  him  re- 
ceived  the   name  of    Bispaniola   (i.  e.    "Little 
Spain").      It  was  afterwards  called   Santo  Do- 
mingo {i.  e.  "Holy  Sabbath,")  from  the  town  of 
that  name  on  the  South  side  of  the  island,  which 
was   one  of  the  first  settlements   made  on   the 
island.      The   name   of    Hayti   was   afterwards 
given   to   it  by  the  black   Emperor   Dessalines, 
after  he  had  expelled  the  French  in  1803,  and 
while   the  whole   island  was   united   under  one 
rule.     Hayti  is  said  to  be  the  original  name  of 
the  island,  given  to  it  by  the  natives,  and  which 
signifies   "Mountainous."     At  Isabelica,  on  the 


SPANISH   PAKT.  2T 

North  coast  of  the  IsLand,  the  discoqerer  founded 
the  first  Spanish  colony  of  the  New  World. 

When  the  island  was  discovered,  it  was  in- 
habited by  the  aboriginal  tribes,  a  weak,  simple- 
minded,  hospitable  and  kind-hearted  people,  and 
was  divided  into  five  different  kingdoms,  each  of 
which  had  its  sovereign,  who  was  called  a  Caci- 
que.    The  first   kingdom  was  bounded  on   the 
North  and  East  by  the  sea,  from  Cape  iiaphael  to 
Isabelica.      Its  capital    was  situated    where  the 
Spaniards  afterwards  built  the  city  of  Conception 
de  la  Vega.     The  kingdom  was   called   Magua^ 
and  comprised  what  is  now  known  as  the  Ciboa 
country.  The  second  kingdom,  called  Mai'ieii^  was 
bounded  on  the  North  and  West  by  the  sea: 
on  the  East  by  the  kingdom,  of  Magua,  and  on  the 
South  by  the  kingdoms  of  Maguana  and  Zaraqua. 
Its    capital   was   situated   near   Cape    Francios. 
The    tJdrd    kingdom    was   called   Higuey^   and 
was  bounded  on  the  East  and   the  South  by  the 
sea,  from   Cape   Raphael  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Jayna:  on  the  North  by  the  kingdom  of  Magna, 
and  on   the  West  by  the  kingdom  of  Maguana. 
Its  capital  was  at  Higuey,  which  still  preserves 
its  ancient   name.     The  fourth  kingdom,  called 
Maguana^  was  bounded  on  the  South  by  the  sea : 


28  DOMINICA. 

on  the  North  by  the  central  range  of  mountains 
and  the  kingdom  of  Magna,  and  to  the  East 
by  the  river  Jayna,  and  on  tiie  West  by  the 
mountains  running  South-West  to  the  bights 
of  the  river  Artibonite.  Its  capital  stood 
where  now  stands  the  ancient  Spanish  town  of 
Sf.  Juan  de  la  Maguana.  The  Jifth  kingdom, 
called  Zaraqua,  comprehended  the  long  strip  of 
headland  which  runs  out  West  from  the  main 
land  on  the  South-West.  Its  capital  was  situated 
on  the  spot  where  the  French  afterwards  built 
the  town  of  Cul  de  Sac. 

This  genial  and  hospitable  though  feeble  and 
simple  race,  lived  for  ages,  perhaps,  in  quiet  ease 
and  plenty  on  the  island,  subsisting  mainly  upon 
the  superabundant  spontaneous  productions  of 
the  country,  although  cultivating  some  gardens 
and  fields,  until  the  Spaniards  planted  colonies 
among  them  and  subsequently  subjugated  them 
to  their  iron  rule,  compelling  them  to  toil  by 
thousands  in  the  mines,  to  satisfy  their  ferocious 
cupidity,  until,  by  their  long  oppression,  the  en- 
tire race,  numbering  some  900,000  when  the 
island  was  first  discovered,  was  almost  wholly 
exterminated,  the  last  of  them  dying  out  towards 
the  end  of  the  last  century.     After  their  exter- 


SPANISH   PA.RT.  2» 

mination,  the  Spaniards  introduced  African 
slavery  to  cultivate  the  soil  and  work  the  mines. 
The  reader  who  is  interested  to  pursue  the  his- 
tory and  cruel  fortunes  of  this  oppressed  people, 
may  consult  Washington  Irving's  Life  of  Colum 
bus. 

The  first  Spanish  settlement  on  the  island  was, 
as  before  observed,  at  Isabelica,  on  the  North 
coast,  which  was  made  by  Columbus,  in  1493. 
The  next  colony  was  at  Santo  Domingo  city,  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Ozama,  on  the  South  side  of 
the  island,  and  was  made  by  Bartholomew  Col- 
umbus, (Christopher's  brother,)  in  1496,  and  the 
little  colony  at  Isabelica,  not  flourishing,  was 
carried  over  to  St.  Domingo  city,  in  1496. 
Within  a  few  years  afterwards,  settlements 
v>'ere  also  made  at  Monte  Christi,  where  there 
was  a  garrison,  at  Conception  de  la  Yega 
Cotuy,  at  Port  Platte,  at  Santiago,  at  Samana, 
at  Azua,  at  Uinche,  Bahique,  at  San  Juan  de 
Maguana,  Iliguey,  Soybo,  Dajabon,  Neyba,  and 
at  various  other  places. 

The  colonists  brought  with  them  of  course,  the 
Spanish  customs,  laws  and  religion,  and  each 
colon}'  or  settlement  was  governed  by  officers, 
appointed  by  the  Spanish  Crown,  and  in  subor- 


30  DOMINICA. 

dinatioii  to  the  sovcreii^iity  of  the  mother  conn- 
try.  They  were  pros])erons  through  a  hmg  series 
of  years,  and  the  tide  of  emigration  thitlier  from 
Spain,  during  the  next  sixty  years,  was  immense. 
They  built  pahitial  residences,  immense  cathe- 
drals and  monasteries,  instituted  colleges  and 
schools  of  learning,  cultivated  sugar  and  tobacco 
plantations,  started  some  manufactories,  built 
prodigous  warehouses,  several  assay  buildings 
and  offices  and  worked  the  mines  on  a  grand  but 
unscientific  scale.  They  imported  thither  horned 
cattle,  sheep,  hogs  and  horses,  and  eventually 
reached  a  degree  of  civilization  and  prosperity 
not  surpassed  by  the  mother  country.  An  ap- 
proximate idea  of  their  thrift  may  be  acqnired 
by  the  quantity  and  value  of  their  exports  during 
the  prosperous  years  or  generations  of  their  colo- 
nial existence.  The  writer  has  not  now  the  official 
statistics  before  him  to  refer  to,  but  it  is  stated  in 
some  of  the  old  works  on  the  subject,  that 
the  average  exports  in  gold  alone  to  Spain, 
amounted  to  jive  million  pesos  (dollars)  per  an- 
num, being  only  the  one-jifth  of  the  yield  of  the 
mines,  payable  to  the  Spanish  Crown.  The 
exports  in  sugar  and  other  productions  of  the 
island  bore  a  corresponding  relation  to  the  ex 


SPANISH    PART.  31 

ports  in  gold.  The  harbors  were  filled  with  ship- 
ping, and  the  trade  and  commercial  marine  of 
the  colony  corresponded  to  the  prosperity  and 
productiveness  of  the  island. 

The  French,  who  had  settled  a  colony  at  St. 
Christopher,  were  driven  from  thence  by  the 
Spaniards  in  1630,  and  established  themselves 
on  the  West  end  of  the  island,  which,  by  a  treaty 
with  Spain,  in  1773,  was  guaranteed  to  France. 
From  this  peri>d  the  French  colony  prospered, 
and  the  Spanish  began  to  decline  through  a  suc- 
cession of  generations  subsequently.  The  Fkin- 
ciPAL  Causes  of  that  decline  were — 

1st.  It  has  been  before  observed,  that  the  na- 
ive Indian  population  enslaved  by  the  Spaniards, 
was  compelled  to  work  in  the  mines  and  on  the 
plantations.  The  Spaniards  and  planters  them- 
selves living  in  opulence  and  ease,  and  being 
averse  to  any  manual  labor,  the  entire  burdens 
of  toil  were  put  upon  this  defenceless  people. 
Tlie  insatiate  avarice  and  cupidity  of  the  Span- 
iards, obliged  these  Indians  to  work  by  thous- 
ands daily  in  the  mines  and  on  the  plantations, 
and  not  being  constitutionally  adapted  to  labor, 
they  became  sickly  and  pined  and  died  in  great 


32  DOMINICA. 

numbers.  In  this  overtasked  and  enfeebled  con- 
dition, epidemic  and  contagious  diseases,  such  as 
small-pox  and  yellow-fever,  broke  out  among  them 
which  carried  them  off  by  thousands.  It  is  rela- 
ted that  300,000  died  in  a  single  year.  This  dimin- 
ished the  products  of  the  Island,  and  seriously  af- 
fected the  immense  revenues  it  had  been  annual- 
ly paying  to  the  mother  country.  Tlie  planters 
and  miners,  and  the  agents  and  superintendents 
of  Spanish  capitalists  in  the  old  country,  became 
dissatisfied,  and  many  of  them  abandoned  their 
mines  and  plantations  and  returned  to  Spain. 

2d.  Just  about  this  time,  Mexico,  Peru  and 
Brazil  were  discovered  and  explored,  and  the 
most  glowing  and  captivating  accounts  went  forth 
of  the  incalculable  wealth  in  silver  and  gold  of 
those  countries.  Under  the  leadership  of  bold 
and  unscrupulous  adventurers,  immense  multi- 
tudes abandoned  their  homes  and  haciendas  and 
flocked  thither,  hoping  there  to  realize  in  a  short 
time  untold  wealth,  and  to  be  enabled  to  again 
feed  the  all-devouring  appetite  for  gold,  that  had 
been  created  in  old  Spain,  by  their  success  in  St. 
Domingo.  It  was  necessary  in  the  first  place  to 
conquer   these  countries,  and   here  Cortez  and 


SPANISH  PART.  33 

other  Spanish  chiefs,  organized  and  recruited 
their  armies  for  that  purpose.  Plantations  and 
mines  that  had  been  producing  immense  reven- 
ues, were  abandoned  to  waste  and  desolation,  and 
the  population  of  the  sland  was  reduced,  by 
this  cause  alone,  nearly  one-half.  Much  of  the 
original  Spanish  population  of  Mexico  and  the 
Spanish  main,  went  thither  at  this  time  from  St. 
Domingo. 

3d.  After  the  extermination  of  the  native 
race,  the  remaining  Spaniards  introduced  African 
slaves  to  take  their  place.  With  this  slave  la- 
bor, they  were  able  to  recover  somewhat  of 
their  ancient  thrift.  But  soon  after,  the  rising  of 
the  slaves  in  the  French  Colony  against  their 
masters,  drew  off  great  numbers  of  these  slaves, 
who  escaped  from  their  proprietors  to  join  the 
standard  of  their  revolted  brethren  at  the  French 
end  of  the  Island.  The  army  of  French  slaves 
was  recruited  daily  by  the  fugitive  slaves  from 
the  Spanish  Colony.  Moreover,  when  the  French 
Royalist  armies  would  drive  the  negroes  back  in- 
to the  mountains,  and  cut  off  their  supplies,  the 
latter  would  enter  the  Spanish  territory,  foray 
upon   the   haciendas,    plunder    the   inhabitants, 


84:  DOMINICA. 

carry  off  their  cattle  aud  crops,  their  arms  and 
amunition,  and  in  fact,  supply  themselves  with 
everything  they  needed  ;  and  if  the  Spaniards 
resisted,  as  they  sometimes  did,  they  ferociously 
butchered  them,  burnt  down  their  habitations  and 
cities  and  destroyed  their  plantations.  One  of 
these  negro  armies  under  Dessalines,  entered  the 
Spanish  territory  and  laid  waste  the  country  for 
leagues,  burning  the  cities,  destroying  the  planta- 
tions, murdering  the  inhabitants  and  carrying  off 
with  him  the  remaining  slaves  of  the  Spaniards. 
The  Spanish  residents,  in  view  of  these  repeated 
attrocities,  and  fearing  further  for  themselves  and 
their  property,  collected  what  moveable  wealth 
they  had,  and  left  the  island,  some  for  Mexico, 
some  for  Peru,  while  many  returned  to  Spain. 

These  causes  with  others  that  might  be  mention- 
ed, operating  through  a  long  period  of  time,  will 
afford  some  adequate  explanation  of  the  reason 
why  the  populous  Spanish  Colony  in  the  Island 
of  St.  Domingo,  from  a  condition  of  splendid  opu- 
lence and  prosperity,  little  if  any  transcended  by 
the  most  enlightened  nations  of  Europe  at  that 
day,  declined  to  a  condition  of  comparative  deso- 
lation and  insignificance,  when  it  threw  off  entire- 


SPANISH   PART.  35 

ly  the  Spanish  yoke.  This  decline  is  not  refer- 
able to  any  inherent  natural  incapacity  in  the  is- 
land itself  to  abundantly  supply  all  and  every 
want  of  civilized  life.  The  mountains  are  stored 
with  wealth,  the  soil  fertile  and  inexhaustibly 
productive,  the  forests  abounding  in  every  species 
of  valuable  and  useful  lumber,  the  climate  as 
healthy  and  salubrious  as  any  in  the  world,  the 
rivers  capable  of  being  rendered  as  navigable  as 
the  Ohio  or  the  Alabama,  the  bays  and  harbors 
as  safe  and  deep  and  wide  as  the  bays  and 
harbors  of  England  and  Scotland,  and  every- 
thing that  beneficent  nature  can  furnish  to 
the  genius  and  hand  of  civilized  man.  The 
Anglo-Saxon  race  would  in  a  few  years  trans- 
form that  gem  of  the  Western  seas  into  an 
earthly  Paradise.  The  elements  of  material 
wealth  and  prosperity  are  there  in  unlimited 
and  inexhaustible  abundance.  There  is  no  spot 
on  the  globe  where  the  labor  of  the  husband- 
man, the  industiy  of  the  mechanic,  the  skill  of 
the  artificer,  and  the  capital  of  the  manufacturer 
would  yield  greater  returns,  and  we  may  say,  that 
there  is  no  climate  on  the  face  of  the  earth, 
where,  if  these  exuberant  savannahs,  crystal 
streams   and   palmy   groves   were  reclaimed  to 


36  DOMINICA. 

modern  Anglo-American  civilization,  man  could 
enjoy  this  preliminary,  physical  existence  of  ours 
better.     But  this  is  a  digression. 

In  1821,  the  Spanish  part  of  the  island  declared 
itself  independent  of  the  mother  country,  and  as- 
sumed the  name  of  Spanish  Hayti ;  but  it  was 
shortly  afterwards  subjugated  by  Boyer,  the 
President  of  the  Ilaytian  republic.  In  1842  a 
revolution  broke  out  in  the  Haytian  republic,  and 
Boyer  was  compelled  to  flee,  and  Riviere  as- 
sumed the  Presidency,  but  in  1844  was  over- 
powered by  the  Spaniards  of  the  East  portion  of 
the  island,  who,  on  the  27th  day  of  February 
1844,  formed  themselves  into  a  republic  under 
the  name  of  Dominica,  with  a  constitution  based 
upon  that  of  Venezuela,  the  main  features  of 
which  are,  that  each  district  or  canton  chooses 
electors  according  to  its  population,  who  meet  in 
Preliminary  Electoral  Convention,  and  elect  for 
four  years,  the  President  and  the  other  adminis- 
trative oflicers,  and  a  certain  number  of  council- 
lors, who  constitute  the  Congress.  After  the 
constitution  was  framed,  the  Provisional  Junta 
elected  Pedro  Santana  the  first  President.  He 
was  followed  in  1848,  by  General  Jimenes. 
Solouque,  then   President   of   the   Republic   of 


SPANISH    PART.  3? 

Ilayti,  attempted  in  1849  to  reconquer  the  ter- 
ritory with  an  army  of  6,000  men,  but  was  sig- 
nally defeated  at  Las  Carreras,  April  21  1849, 
by  General  Santana,  who  had  only  400  men 
under  his  command.  For  this  great  victory, 
Santana  received  the  title  of  "Libertador  de  la 
Patria,"  and  pecuniary  votes  from  the  Congress. 
Upon  his  recommendation  Seilor  Buenaventura 
Baes  was  soon  after  elected  President.  He  suc- 
ceeded in  entering  into  treaties  for  the  recogni- 
tion of  the  republic  and  reciprocal  commerce, 
with  Great  Britain,  France  and  Denmark. 
Several  other  European  Powers  have  since  re- 
cognized their  independence  and  entered  into 
treaties  with  them,  as  have  also  Venezuela,  New 
Granada,  Brazil  and  Mexico.  But  the  Haytian 
President  Solouque  still  strenuously  refused  to 
recognize  their  independence,  and  continued  to 
harrass  and  menace  the  republic  after  his  defeat, 
until  in  1854,  when  a  suspension  of  arms  was 
agreed  upon  between  the  republics,  to  extend  for 
■  five  years.  Before,  however,  the  truce  had  ex- 
pired, a  revolution  compelled  Solouque  to  flee, 
and  Geffrard  was  proclaimed  President,  who  re- 
newed the  truce  at  its    expiration  in  1859,  for 


38  DOMINICA. 

five  years  longer,  at  the  same  time  giving  the 
Dominicans  every  assurance  that  lie  would 
eventually  recognize  their  independence. 

The  perpetual  fears  and  apprehensions  of  de- 
scents upon  and  invasions  of  the  Dominican  ter 
ritory  by  the  Haytians,  during  the  long  incum- 
bency of  Solouque,  tended  strongly  to  depress 
their  remaining  industrial  energies,  to  restrict 
their  trade  and  commerce  and  render  it  insecure, 
to  diminish  their  agricultural  products,  and  to 
exhaust  their  already  depleted  treasury,  by  laying 
them  under  the  necessity  of  being  constantly 
prepared  with  arms,  araunition  and  soldiers  to 
resist  the  threatened  aggressions.  The  citizens 
of  the  republic  were  often  called  upon  short 
notice,  from  their  shops  and  fields,  to  muster  and 
defend  the  State  fi-om  the  incursions  of  the  Hay- 
tians, real  or  apprehended,  Solouque,  on  every 
public  occasion,  avowing  it  as  his  determination 
to  march  into  the  territory  and  reduce  by  force, 
the  Dominicans  to  the  Haytian  rule. 

But  this  fixed  purpose  of  Solouque  to  again 
subjugate  the  Dominicans,  had  also  a  mischiev- 
ous efiect  upon  the  internal  political  relations 
and  affairs  of  the  republic.  Disappointed  fac- 
tions, cliques  and  parties,  either  through  revenge 


SPANISH   PAST.  39 

or  ambition,  were  often  found  unscrupulous  and 
treasonable  enough  to  secretly  or  openly  betray 
the  government,  or  court  the  influence  and 
power  of  the  black  Emperor  to  overpower  tlieii 
successful  opponents,  or  to  reinstate  themselves  in 
official  dignities.  The  reader  will  readily  under- 
stand how  this  menacing  purpose  and  attitude  of 
Solouque  towards  the  Dominicans,  requiring 
them  to  be  constantly  prepared  and  incessantly 
on  the  alert, — to  sustain  a  hired  soldiery  and 
keep  up  a  navy  to  the  extent  of  their  resources, 
and  ever  and  anon  call  away  from  his  plantation 
and  his  shop  the  citizen,  to  do  military  duty — 
tended  to  unsettle  the  internal  industrial  and 
mercantile  interests  of  the  little  republic,  to 
diminish  the  crops  and  the  exports,  to  exhaust 
their  pecuniary  resources,  destroy  their  financial 
credit,  to  overflow  the  country  with  a  ruinously 
depreciated  government  currency,  and  precipi- 
tate the  necessity  for  enormous  impost  duties. 
However,  since  the  disastroiis  defeat  of  Solouque 
at  Las  Carreras  by  General  Santana,but  a  small 
portion  of  the  negro  population  of  Ilayti  really 
sympathized  with  him  in  this  scheme  of  territo- 
rial extension  ;  but,  possessing  arbitrary  and  ab- 
solute power,  the  expression  of  this  popular  sen- 


40  DOMINICA. 

timent  was  suppressed,  or  hazardous  in  the  ex- 
treme. But,  upon  the  accession  of  GefFrard  to 
the  Presidency,  the  populace  demanded  pledges 
from  the  latter  that  he  would  not  any  longer  pur- 
sue the  policy  of  his  predecessor  in  this  regard. 
It  is  now  not  at  all  probable  that  any  organized 
attempt  of  the  Haytians  to  recover  possession 
of  the  Dominican  territory,  will  ever  again  be 
made.  So  that  from  henceforth  all  disasters  and 
annoyances  from  this  source  will  terminate. 

Pedro  Santana,  the  present  President,  is  a  man 
about  sixty  years  of  age,  a  Spaniard  with  a  trace 
of  the  native  Indian  blood,  a  native  of  the  island, 
a  man  of  much  integrity  of  character  and  beyond 
all  question  habitually  honest  and  sincere.  He 
is  sagacious,  and  although  without  many  edu- 
cational acquirements,  yet  possefsed  of  strong 
good  sense  and  a  fair  share  of  administrative 
abilities.  He  is  cool  and  deliberate  at  all  times, 
and  is  very  popular  with  the  masses  and  the 
old  Spanish  inhabitants  of  the  island.  Although 
not  large,  he  is  of  a  robust  and  healthy  consti- 
tution, and  bears  a  striking  resemblance  to  the 
late  General  Taylor.  The  seat  of  government  is 
at  present  at  Santo  Domingo  city,  although  re- 
cently an  attempt  was  made  to  transfer  it  per- 


SPANISH    PAUT.  41 

manentlj  to  Santiago,  on  the  North  side  of  the 
island,  which  attempt  occasioned  some  internal 
dissentions  and  a  change  in  the  administration. 
The  President  is  strongly  favorable  to  the  United 
States,  as  are  also,  as  the  writer  is  informed,  a 
majority  of  his  cabinet  and  councillors,  and  have 
made  several  attempts  to  negotiate  a  treaty  of 
amity  and  commerce  with  our  government.  A 
few  years  ago  a  very  fiivorable  treaty,  drawn  up 
by  General  Cazanau,  was  proffered  to  the  United 
States  by  the  Dominican  republic,  but  the  ex- 
change of  ratifications  never  took  place,  from 
the  sheer  neglect,  as  the  writer  is  informed,  of  cur 
government.  The  Dominican  authorities  have 
been  willing  to  concede  us  a  naval  station  in  the 
important  Bay  of  Sam  ana,  but  having  been 
treated  with  such  neglect  on  our  part,  they 
seem  discouraged.  If  they  were  asked  or  in- 
vited, they  would,  no  doubt,  renew  the  offer.  It 
is  undeniable  that  our  trade  to  the  island  snfiers 
in  consequence  of  not  having  a  mutual  nnder- 
etanding  with  them  by  treaty,  as  have  England, 
France,  Holland,  and  other  European  Powers. 
We  have  two  Consuls  there — Mr.  Arthur  Lith- 
gow,  at  Port  Platte  on  the  North  side  of  tlie 
island,  and  Mr,  J"onathan  Elliott,  at  Sauto   Do- 


42  KOMTNICA. 

miiigo  city  on  the  South  side ;  tliese  two  cities 
being  now  the  only  ports  of  entry  on  the  island, 
the  exports  of  all  the  other  seaboard  cities  liaving 
to  be  brought  thither  by  coasters.  The  French 
code  of  the  Restoration  has  been  adopted  in  legal 
proceedings  and  for  the  maintenance  of  order. 

Before  concluding  this  section  and  to  avoid 
the  multiplicity  of  headings,  it  might  be  as  well 
to  advert  briefly  in  this  connection  to  the  law 
regulating  the  landed  titles  and  estates,  and  the 
inining  privileges  of  the  Dominican  domain. 
The  land,  and  what  grows  thereon,  as  well  as  all 
the  minerals  beneath,  belonged  originally  and 
by  right  of  eminent  domain^  to  the  Spanish 
Crown,  and  since  the  days  of  the  republic  to 
the  Dominican  governnent.  In  the  days  of  the 
colony,  when  the  Crown  conveyed  it  conveyed 
only  the  surface  or  usufruct  of  the  soil,  "  as  deep 
as  the  plough  goes,"  together  with  all  that  grew 
on  the  surface,  reserving  the  right  to  all  beneath 
the  soil,  and  the  right  to  take  it  thence.  So  that 
the  planters  and  land-owners  who  took  titles  thus 
had  no  right  to  the  minerals  beneath.  These 
titles  or  leases,  were  either  in  perpeiuum  or  for 
terms  of  years,  and   were  of  course,  assignable 


SPANISH    PART,  43 

01*  alienable,  and  descende  d  lineally  or  collater- 
ally, as  the  case  might  happen.  The  Crown  also 
granted  by  deed,  mining  privileges  in  per- 
petuum  or  for  terms,  which  were  also  transfer- 
able and  descended,  the  Crown  reserving  one-fifth 
of  the  products  thereof.  The  Crown  also  owned 
all  the  navigable  and  otlier  rivers  and  streams, 
and  in  like  manner,  made  grants  of  the  use  of 
them.  In  this  way,  during  the  course  of  three 
or  four  generations,  almost  all  the  lands  and  min- 
ing franchises  in  the  territory  were  disposed  of 
and  held  by  individuals,  families  and  companies. 
But  during  the  troubles  and  decline  of  the 
colony,  as  before  stated,  thousands  abandoned 
their  plantations  and  claims,  the  landmarks  dis- 
appeared and  were  forgotten,  and  the  grantees 
aD.d  their  heirs  and  representatives  died  out,  or 
were  scattered  through  the  earth.  The  cattle, 
hogs  and  horses,  which  had  been  brought  to  the 
island,  began  to  run  wild  in  the  mountains  and 
on  the  plains  and  multiplied  in  such  abundance 
that,  in  a  few  generations  they  covered  the  savan- 
nahs and  filled  the  forests  in  immense  herds. 
These  herds  became  afterwards  a  source  of  great 
emolument  to  the  remaining  residents,  who  began 


44r  DOMINICA. 

to  claim  them  here  and  there,  according  to  the 
places  where  they  were  accustomed  to  range. 
In  this  way  titles  to  the  herds  and  the  cattle- 
ranges,  which  is  now  a  part  of  the  common  law 
or  custom,  took  their  rise,  so  that  one  man  or 
family  owns  the  _privilege  of  ranging  cattle  here, 
another  there,  and  so  forth. 

Upon  the  organization  of  the  republic,  the 
Dominican  government  assumed  the  right  of 
eminent  domain  that  formerly  attached  to  the 
Spanish  Crown,  adopted  the  same  code  of  laws, 
and  observed  the  same  customs  that  obtained 
under  the  colonial  regime,  ratified  the  grants 
that  had  been  made,  and  passed  an  edict  that  all 
the  heirs  and  descendants  of  the  original  proprie- 
tors or  their  grantees,  who  would  return  to  the 
island  and  prove  their  claims,  should  be  put  in 
possession  of  and  enjoy  their  inheritance.  Under 
and  by  virtue  of  this  just  and  equitable  legisla- 
tion, many  returned  and  claimed  their  estates 
and  grants.  But  those  who  did  not  return  within 
a  limited  period  were  debarred  of  their  riglit, 
and  the  land  and  franchises  reverted  to  the 
government.  I  am  informed  however  indirect- 
ly, upon  the  authority  of  the  President  himself, 


SPANISH   PART.  45 

that  the  government  now  owns  but  little  of  the  land 
and  the  mining  franchises  (except  the  reservation 
of  one-fifth  of  the  mineral  products),  and  that 
little  confined  almost  exclusively  to  the  region 
around  the  Bay  of  Samana.  Almost  all  the  usu- 
fruct of  the  soil,  and  the  timber  that  grows  upon 
it,  together  with  the  raining  franchises,  are  held 
by  private  parties,  families  and  individuals,  resi- 
dent there  or  elsewhere,  and  who,  scarcely  with- 
out an  exception,  are  anxious  to  dispose  of  them, 
either  in  whole  or  in  part,  and  on  favorable 
terms  and  conditions  to  those  who  would  devel- 
ope  their  resources.  The  greatest  difficulty  in 
acquiring  what  we  would  call  a  fee  simple  in  a 
definitely  described  tract,  arises  from  the  mode 
by  which  the  land  is  now  generally  held  and 
conveyed.  It  is  a  sort  of  commonable  right  that 
is  conveyed.  Individuals  and  families  own  large 
districts,  the  outlines  or  boundaries  of  which  are 
not  very  well  defined,  and  for  a  certain  consider- 
ation they  convey  certain  commonable  rights  to 
it,  the  price  depending  upon  the  situation  and 
advantages  or  value  of  the  tract.  For  instance, 
for  the  sum  of  say  twenty-five  pesos,  you  ac- 
quire a  right  to  settle  on  a  tract  any  place  where 


46  DOMINICA. 

it  is  not  already  occupied,  cultivate  as  much  as 
you  require,  range  your  cattle  on  the  whole 
tract,  and  cut  as  much  timber  as  you  need  for 
your  own  use  (except  mahogany),  but  not  to  sell ; 
for  6.fty  2>esos^  you  acquire  a  right  to  settle,  cul- 
tivate, range,  and  cut  and  sell  all  kinds  of  tim- 
ber, except  mahogany,  and  for  one  hundred 
pesos,  you  acquire  the  right  to  settle,  cultivate, 
range,  and  also  to  cut  and  sell  anywhere  on  the 
tract,  all  kinds  of  timber.  The  raining  privileges 
are  generally  held  and  conveyed  in  the  same 
way.  But  this  difficulty  could  be  easily  obvi- 
ated by  the  purchase  of  the  whole  tract,  as  each 
of  the  owners  are  uniformly  ready  and  anxious 
to  sell  out  part  or  the  whole  of  his  or  their  tract, 
with  all  the  commonable  franchises,  at  prices 
varying  from  six  cents  to  four  shillings  per  acre, 
depending  upon  its  location  and  value.  Neither 
the  real  or  personal  property,  either  of  the  citizen 
or  foreign  resident  is  taxed,  the  revenue  of  the 
republic  being  raised  exclusively  by  import  and 
export  duties. 


SECTION  in. 

The  Prvncipal  Rivers  and  Bays. 

The  rivers  and  streams  of  a  country  partake  of 
of  Course,  of  the  topographical  and  other  peculi 
arities  of  its  surtace.  In  level,  low  or  flat  coun- 
tries, orsandj  and  rolling  districts,  the  rivers  and 
their  branches  are  few,  dull  and  sluggish,  while 
the  drainage  of  a  country  so  mountainous,  abrupt 
and  hilly,  so  covered  with  forests  and  vegetation, 
and  so  interspersed  everywhere  between  the  hills 
and  mountains  with  valleys,  savannahs  and  plains 
of  every  degree  of  elevation  or  depression,  as  is 
the  Island  of  St.  Domingo,  requires  innumerable 
streams,  rivers  and  rivulets.  Such  we  find  to  be 
the  case  in  St.  Domingo.  The  branches  and  the 
ramifications  of  tlie  principal  rivers  are  well  nii^li 
innumerable.  The  repeated  and  heavy  rains 
that  fall  during  the  rainy  seasons,  are  lodged  in 


48  DOMINICA. 

,these  prodigious  mountains,  thick  forests  and  the 
numberless  valleys  and  basins  contained  in  the 
interior  of  the  country,  between  the  ranges  of 
mountains,  between  their  branch  ranges,  and 
then  between  the  hills.  Many  of  these  valleys 
or  basins  lie  high  up  in  the  mountains,  at  a 
great  elevation  above  the  level  of  the  sea.  In 
fact,  some  of  the  mountain  tops  themselves  form 
plateaus  or  basins,  and  the  abundant  rains  being 
lodged  in  these  numberless  reservoirs,  give  rise 
to  innumerable  springs,  that  gush  from  the  moun- 
tain sides,  and  often  pitching  and  tumbling  in 
cascades  and  running  in  rapid  rivulets  down  the 
mountains,  uniting  their  waters,  augment  in  vol- 
ume as  they  cut  like  so  many  canals  the  lower 
plains  and  savannahs,  in  their  course  to  the  prin- 
cipal rivers.  Some  of  these  mountain  streams 
are  deep  and  rocky,  and  flow  through  long  and 
gloomy  chasms,  while  others  skim  the  surface, 
pitching  over  the  rocks  into  holes  below,  then 
pursuing  their  course  on  a  level,  and  again  falling 
over  precipices,  until  they  reach  the  main  rivers. 
Tliey  are  of  great  diversity  of  strength  and  vol- 
ume, and  before  they  reach  the  main  rivers,  and 
especially  during  the  dry  seasons,  are  crystaline- 
iy  pure  and  clear.     Some  of  them  are  subject  in 


RIVERS  AND  DAYS.  49 

tlie  rainy  seasons  to  sudden  rises,  when  they 
teem  down  the  mountains,  and  rush  over  the  val- 
leys and  plains  with  great  volocity,  while  others 
are  not  so  subject  to  'hose  rises,  the  rains  being 
collected  and  preserved  in  reservoirs  and  moun- 
tain lakes,  and  only  slowly  drained  off  by  them. 
The  reader  will  readily  conceive  what  tremen- 
dous power  these  streams  would  furnish,  when 
utilized  by  scientific  application  to  nianufactur 
ing  interests. 

The  principal  rivers  of  Dominica  are  the  Monte 
Christi  or  Yaquo,  the  Ciboa  and  the  Yuna  rivers 
and  their  tributaries  on  the  north  side  of  the  Is- 
land ;  the  head  M^aters  of  the  Artibonite  on  the 
west;  and  the  ITiguey,  the  Ozama,  the  Niazo, 
Jayna  and  tl;e  ISTeiva  and  their  tributaries  on  the 
south  side. 

The  Yaque  ]'ises  about  the  centre  of  the  Island 
high  up  in  the  Ciboa  mountains,  and  first  flow- 
ing nearly  in  a  northern  direction,  turns  to  the 
West-North-West  before  it  reaches  the  town  of 
Santiago,  and  then  through  its  meanderings,  pre- 
serving the  same  general  course,  flows  through 
the  rich  and  lovely  valley  of  the  Monte  Christi 
and    empties   into   the   bay   of  that   name.      It 


50  DOMINICA. 

is  fed  by  a  number  of  tributaries,  flowing  into  it 
principally  from  the  South,  which  take  their  rise 
in  the  central  range  of  mountains.  It  varies 
much  in  width  at  different  points,  being  at  its 
widest  point  about  three  hundred  yards  and  its 
narrowest  about  fifty.  Its  bed  and  shores  from 
its  scources  four-fifths  of  the  way  down,  are  form- 
ed of  gravel  and  boulders  large  and  small  ;  from 
thence  onward  to  its  mouth  it  assumes  a  muddy 
and  alluvial  bed.  It  is  incumbered  at  its  mouth 
with  sandbars,  as  are  all  those  rivers,  the  reason 
of  which  is,  as  will  suggest  itself  to  the  reflective 
reader,  the  great  quantity  of  soil,  mud  and  loam 
that  the  rains  bring  down  from  the  mountains 
and  plains  and  which  the  rivers  carry  down  and 
deposit  ai  their  mouths.  From  its  rise  down  to 
about  flfteen  miles  below  the  town  of  Santiago 
its  current  is  swift  and  there  are  some  shoals  and 
rapids,  but  from  thence  to  its  mouth  it  is  navigable 
in  its  present  condition  for  boats  and  barges  of  light 
draft  which  carry  down  the  mahogany  and  other 
freight  to  Monte  Christi.  It  is  susceptible  of 
being  rendered  navigable  for  steamers  of  light 
draft  such  as  run  on  our  Western  waters,  with 
very  little  outlay  of  labor  and  capital. 


RIVEKS  AND  BAYS.  51 

The  Gihoob  also  takes  its  rise  in  the  Ciboa 
iDOuntains  near  the  centre  of  the  Island  and  sepa- 
rated from  the  waters  of  the  Yaque  only  by  a 
lofty  sierra,  but  it  flows  in  a  contrary  direction 
at  first,  pursuing  a  zigzag  course  among  the 
mountains  towards  the  East,  and  then  bending 
around  in  a  great  semi-circle  to  the  North  and 
West  empties  into  the  Yaque  about  twenty  miles 
above  the  town  of  Santiago.  It  is  a  rough  and 
rocky  stream,  at  times  widening  out  and  flowing 
smoothly  in  great  curves  and  then  contracting  as 
it  passes  through  narrow  dark  and  rocky  defiles 
between  mountains,  and  often  tumbling  over  falls 
and  forming  deep  holes  below.  It  is  not  navi- 
gable nor  could  it  be  easily  made  so.  The  scen- 
ery on  this  river  is  remarkably  picturesque  and 
grand. 

The  Yuna  takes  its  rise  in  the  northern  and 
middle  range  of  mountains  near  Santiago,  and 
flows  between  these  ranges,  fed  by  innumerable 
tributaries  from  both  sides,  through  the  Royal 
Plains  in  an  East-South-Easterly  course,  and 
empties  into  the  magnificent  bay  of  Samana. 
Fi-om  its  rise  to  La  Vega  it  is  much  like  the 
Yaque  above  Santiago,  somewhat  swift  and  en- 


52  DOMINICA. 

cumbered  with  shoals  and  rapids  ;  but  from  La 
Yega  to  its  mouth  it  is  smooth  and  placid.  The 
sugar  and  tobacco  planters  about  La  Yega  and 
Cotuy  formerly  took  down  their  crops  on  jEiat- 
boats  to  Samana  on  this  river,  and  as  may  be  con- 
ceived, it  could  easily  be  rendered  navigable  for 
steamers  of  light  draft.  Its  bed  and  shores  down 
to  within  about  sixty  miles  of  its  mouth,  are 
gravell}'',  when  it,  like  the  Yaque,  becomes  mud- 
dy and  alluvial. 

If  the  reader  will  consult  the  map  of  the  Island 
and  observe  these  two  rivers,  the  Yaque  and  the 
yuna,  both  taking  their  rise  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Santiago,  and  both  flowing  in  opposite  direc- 
tions between  the  northern  and  central  chains  oi 
mountains,  the  former  flowing  West  through  the 
rich  and  fertile  valley  of  Monte  Christi,  and  tho 
latter  East  through  the  magnificient  and  equally 
rich  and  fertile  valley  of  La  Yega  or  the  Royal 
Plains,  he  will  be  at  once  struck  with  the  feasi- 
bility and  cheapness  with  which  a  Rail  Road 

could  be  constructed,  almost  straight  and  with 
easy  grades  through  the  whole  length  of  these 
valleys  from  Monte  Christi  to  the  bay  of  Samana, 
which  could  transport  the  colossal  products  of 


rivp:ks  and  bays.  53 

those  valleys  if  cultivated  by  scientific  industry 
to  these  ports. 

The  Higuey  is  a  stream  rising  on  the  highlands 
of  "  los  llanos  "  to  the  east  of  St.  Domingo  City, 
and  flowing  East-South-East  into  the  Carribbean 
Sea.  Its  characteristics  partake  of  the  district  of 
country  which  it  drains.  Its  current  from  the 
town  of  Higuey  down  is  sluggish  and  slow.  Its 
bed  below  the  town  is  muddy  and  it  is  navigable 
for  flats  only  a  few  miles  fi'om  its  mouth. 

The  Ozama  rises  in  the  central  chain  of  moun- 
tains, where  they  begin  to  fall  off  in  hight  and 
abruptness  towards  the  east  end  of  the  Island 
and  flows  a  little  West  of  South  into  the  Carrib- 
bean Sea.  It  is  a  fine  stream  fed  by  a  number 
of  tributaries  and  navigable  for  vessels  of  heavy 
tonnage  some  distance  up  its  wide  mouth,  and 
for  vessels  of  light  draft  about  fifty  miles  up. 
The  ancient  city  of  St.  Domingo  stands  near  its 
mouth  on  the  west  bank. 

The  river  Niazo  rises  on  the  South  side  of  the 
central  range  of  mountains,  and,  pursuing  a 
somewhat  devious  course  W  estward.  turns  in  an 
immense  curve  a  little  East  of  South,  and  emp- 
ties into  the  Carribbean  sea,  about  twenty  miles 


54  DOMINICA. 

"West  of  the   mouth   of  the   Ozama.     It   is   not 
navigable. 

The  Jayna  also  rises  in  the  same  range,  flows 
South  and  empties  into  the  sea  about  forty  miles 
West  of  St.  Domingo  city. 

The  Nei'va  also  rises  in  the  Southern  sierras  of 
the  central  chain,  runs  nearly  West  for  a  distance 
of  about  fifty  miles,  to  the  ancient  town  of  San 
Juan  delaMaguana;  then  makes  an  immense 
curve  to  the  South  and  flows  into  the  long  Bay 
of  Neiva,  about  eighty  miles  West  of  St.  Do- 
mingo city.  Above  San  Juan  de  la  Magnana  it 
is  rough,  rocky  and  rapid,  but  below  it  is  tran- 
quil and  easy  in  its  current,  and  navigable  for 
floats  from  San  Juan  down.  At  its  mouth  it 
widens  out  into  the  bay  of  the  same  name,  in  the 
upper  portion  of  which  are  many  sandbars  and 
alluvial  islands,  bearing  a  strong  resemblance, 
although  on  a  smaller  scale,  to  the  mouths  of  the 
Mississippi.  It  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  and 
picturesque  streams  on  the  island,  the  scenery, 
especially  on  its  upper  portion,  being  wonder- 
fully grand  and  sublime. 

The  At'tihanite,  on  the  West  end  of  the  island, 
has  its  sources  in  the  lofty  central  sierras  of   the 


RIVERS  AND  BAYS.  55 

West,  and  first  flowing  in  a  South- Westerly  direc- 
tion, turns  to  the  West  and  flows  through  the 
Haytian  territory  into  the  Bay  of  Gonaives. 
That  portion  of  it  which  lies  in  the  Doniinican 
territory  is  precipitious,  rocky  and  abrupt  beyond 
description,  running  now  in  deep  and  rocky 
channels  through  enormous  chasms  and  openings 
between  the  mountains,  now  in  wide  curves 
through  valleys  and  along  the  base  of  the  sierra 
ranges,  until  it  enters  the  Haytian  dominions. 
Its  scenery,  for  grandeur  and  sublimity,  is  not 
surpassed  by  that  of  any  river  on  the  island.  It 
is  not  navigable  in  its  upper  or  Dominican  part. 
In  briefly  describing  the  princij)al  bays  of 
Dominica,  the  first  of  importance  is  the  far- 
fiimed  and  magnificent  Bay  of  Samana,  at  the 
North-Eastern  end  of  the  island,  at  the  mouth  of 
the  Yuna  river.  It  is  about  fifty  miles  from  East 
to  West,  and  varying  in  width  from  fifteen  to 
twenty  miles,  and  of  a  great  depth.  The  en- 
trance to  it  is  at  th€  East  end  and  is  about  a 
mile  wide,  as  beyond  that  there  is  shoal  water 
to  the  South  side,  some  little  islands  and  bars 
ai>pearing  above  the  surface.  An  old  fort,  erect- 
ed long  sincje  on   the  high  blufi;'  on   the  North 


56  DOMINICA. 

side  a  few  miles  above  its  mouth,  and  before  it 
widens  out,  commands  its  entrance.  The  hills 
and  mountains  on  either  side  of  the  bay  rise 
back  from  it  to  a  great  hight,  their  sides  being 
covered  with  beautiful  slopes,  plateaus  and 
benches.  The  coasts  are  here  and  there  indented 
with  minor  bays  and  inlets,  the  most  important 
of  which  is  at  the  town  of  Saniana,  about  twentj- 
live  miles  up  the  Bay  on  the  north  side.  It  is  a 
large  land-locked  harbor  and  very  deep,  as  are 
all  the  inlets.  The  view  of  the  bay  from  either 
side  across  to  the  opposite  shores,  covered  as  it 
is  with  swarms  of  ducks  and  swan  and  other 
water-fowl  ;  and  the  coasts  and  hills  and  moun 
tains,  covered  with  flowers  and  verdure  and 
fruit  is  truly  beautiful  and  sublime,  equal- 
ling, if  not  surpassing  in  beauty  and  maiiuifi- 
cence  the  bay  of  Naples,  and  is  obviously  the  key 
to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  Here  all  the  navies  of 
the  world  could  lay  at  anchor  in  safety.  There 
are  no  heavy  swells  or  high  seas  or  strong  winds 
in  it,  and  the  region  arouncf  the  Baj-  and  on  the 
bights  is  said  to  be  remarkably  healthy. 

The  Bay  or  Harbor  of  Port  Platte  on  the  ISTorth 
side  of  the  island,  is  a  wide  egg-shaped  inlet 
about  one  mile  long  and  three-quar*^ers  wide  at 


RIVERS  AND  BAYS.  67 

its  widest  part.  There  is  shoal  water  at  its  en- 
trance through  which  there  is  a  channel,  render- 
ing it  necessary  for  the  vessels  entering  to  have  a 
pilot  acquainted  with  it.  The  landing  at  the 
town  of  Port  Platte  is  shoal,  so  that  vessels  have 
to  anchor  out  some  distance  and  land  their  car- 
goes by  means  of  lighters.  All  the  entries  on 
the  north  side  of  the  island  are  made  here. 

The  Bay  and  Harbor  of  Monte  Christi  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Yaque,  is  second  only  to  the  Bay  of 
Samana.  The  Monte  Christi  Bay  is  properly  the 
harbor  at  the  town  of  that  name,  the  great  bay 
being  called  the  Mancenilla.  The  Harbor  is  a 
wide  land-locked  inlet  or  bay  within  the  Mance- 
nilla Bay,  with  a  narrow  and  good  entrance,  a 
group  of  islands  called  "  The  Sisters  "  coming 
round  and  forming  a  semi-circle  within  the  Man- 
cenilla. It  is  proverbially  healthy,  and  will  some 
day  be  an  important  point  of  shipment  and  trade 
for  all  the  produce  of  the  extensive  valley  of  the 
Monte  Christi. 

The  principal  bays  and  harbors  on  the  south 
side  of  the  Dominican  part  of  the  island  are 
the  Bay  of  Cavalieros,  the  Harbor  at  St.  Domingo 
City,  the  Bay  of  Ocoa,  overlooking  which  the 
town  of  Azua  is  situated,  and  the  Bay  of  Neiva 


58  DOMINICA. 

As  may  be  judged  from  the  topographical  sur- 
vey of  the  island,  these  bays  are  generally  deep 
and  their  coasts  high  and  rocky,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  Harbor  of  St.  Domingo  City  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Ozama,  which  although  sufficiently 
deep  is  not  rocky,  nor  is  the  coast  for  some  dis- 
tance  east  and  west  of  it. 


SfiOTtON  IV. 

The  Principal  Cities  and  Towns. 

Tlie  cities  and  towns  of  Dominica  with  scarcely 
a  single  exception  are  of  ancient  date,  running 
back  in  the  history  of  the  island  to  the  earliest 
days  of  the  Colony,  and  in  fact  some  of  them  far 
beyond  them.  The  earliest  histories  of  the 
island  mention  them  under  different  names.  In- 
deed the  oldest  cities  of  the  New  World  are  to  be 
founii  here.  As  is  natural,  therefore,  each  has  its 
anciei-t  legends,  traditions  and  associations. 
From  (he  year  14:9J:  to  the  latter  part  of  the 
eighteenih  century,  perhaps  no  spot  in  the  world 
of  equal  dimensions  was  every  so  full  of  vicissi- 
tudes, incidents  and  epochs,  and  I  may  also  say 
so  full  of  revolutionary,  insurrectionary  and  pre- 
datory violence  and  bloodshed.  Scenes  have 
been  transacted  on  that  island  so  unspeakably 


60  DOMINICA. 

sanguinary  and  inhuman,  that  were  they  to  be 
perpetrated  now  in  any  quarter  of  the  globe, 
their  iniquity  would  bewilder  the  head,  convulse 
the  conscience  and  send  a  thrill  of  horror  to  the 
heart  of  universal  man  !  But  let  us  hope  that  the 
time  for  these  inhumanities  has  forever  past.  Let 
us  hope  that  they  were  the  price  paid  by  Span- 
ish St.  Domingo  for  a  long  exemption  from  such 
troubles  and  cruelties  and  that  she  will  now  rise 
from  her  ruins  the  "  Paradise  Regained  "  of  the 
New  World. 

In  giving  the  reader  some  account  of  the  prin- 
cipal cities  and  towns  of  the  Republic,  we  must 
be  necessarily  brief,  as  to  descend  into  details 
would  not  consist  with  the  plan  of  this  little  work. 
All  we  design  is  to  give  him  some  general  idea 
of  their  origin,  situation  and  present  condition. 
We  will  begin  with — 

Monte  Christi  situated  on  the  north  side  of  the 
Island,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Yaque  on  the  Monte 
Christi  bay,  which  is  within  the  Mancinilla  bay. 
The  Harbor  as  before  observed,  is  one  of  the  best 
on  the  island,  deep  and  affords  ample  protection  to 
all  the  vessels  entering  it.  The  site  of  the  town 
is  high,  dry  and  exceedingly  airy  and  salubrious. 
The  town  overlooks  the  Monte  Christi  bay,  which 


CITIES  AND  TOWNS.  61 

is  about  tit'teen  miles  long  by  two  wide.  The  soil 
is  ratlier  poor  compared  with  the  valley  of  the 
Yaque,  being  a  sandy  loam.  The  principal  pub- 
lic building  is  a  Oatiiolic  Church  recently  erected. 
It  has  at  present  a  population  of  about  500  who 
almost  all  follow  jjrazino^  cattle  for  a  livelihood. 
The  town  sprung  from  a  small  garrison  originally 
planted  there  by  Columbus. 

Guyabin,  twenty  miles  further  up  the  Yaque, 
is  situated  on  its  left  bank  where  the  Guyabin 
river  empties  into  the  Yaque,  and  seventy 
miles  below  or  to  the  westward  of  Santiago. 
The  Monte  Christi  valley  is  here  about  fifteen 
miles  wide.  There  is  also  a  Catholic  Church 
at  this  place.  The  soil  and  climate  are  good 
and  the  place  considered  very  healthy.  The 
population  is  about  1500  whose  chief  business 
is  grazing  and  raising  cattle. 

Santiago  (St.  James)  is  beautifully  located  in 
a  savannah  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Yaque,  com- 
manding a  view  of  the  river  and  part  of  the 
Monte  Christi  valley.  It  is  situated  on  the  high- 
lands at  the  head  of  both  the  Royal  Plains  and 
the  Monte  Christi  valley,  having  partial  views  of 
both.  The  streets  are  laid  out  at  right  angles, 
with  a  public  square  in  the   centre,  upon  which 


62  DOMINICA. 

the  public  buildings,  namely,  the  Government 
House,  the  Jail,  the  Cathedral  200  feet  long  and 
60  wide,  the  ancient  Assembly  Room  and  many 
beautiful  private  residences  front.  Its  population, 
numbering  at  present  about  8000,  is  made  up  of 
merchants,  planters,  mechanics,  cattle  grazers 
and  others.  There  are  several  tanneries  and 
brick  yards  here.  The  soil  is  good  and  the  cli- 
mate very  healthy.  It  is  perhaps  one  of  the  finest 
sites  for  a  city  to  be  found  anywhere  on  the 
island.  The  soil  is  pretty  well  cultivated  about 
the  city  and  indeed  all  the  way  to  Moca  15  miles 
east  of  it.  Santiago  was  founded  as  early  as  the 
year  1500  by  the  Hidalgos  wlio  followed  Colum- 
bus to  the  New  World  in  his  third  voyage,  and 
has  been  several  times  pillaged  and  burnt.  The 
ancient  site  of  the  city  was  several  miles  from 
where  it  now  stands.  It  was  sacked  and  its  in- 
habitants inhumanly  massacred  by  the  Haytians 
under  Dessalines  on  their  march  against  the 
French  who  had  taken  refuge  at  St.  Domingo 
City,  which  was  the  last  infliction  of  the  kind  it 
has  sufiered. 

Port  Platte  is  situated  on  the  harbor  of  that 
name  on  the  north  side  of  the  island,  lifty-five 
nailes  north  of  Santiago.     It  is  situated  on  the 


CITIES  AND  TOWNS.  63 

base  of  the  slope  of  a  mountain  which  rises  to  a 
considerable  higlit  right  back  of  the  city,  and  is 
laid  out  nearly  at  right  angles.  It  is  now  the 
only  port  of  entry  to  the  Dominican  Hepublic  on 
the  north  side  of  the  island,  which  renders  it 
quite  a  place  of  trade  and  commerce.  The  pub- 
lic buildings  are  an  old  Fort  at  the  east  side  of 
the  entrance  to  the  harbor,  the  Custom  House 
and  offices,  a  Cathedral  and  a  Methodist  Church. 
The  buildings  are  of  wood  and  brick  and  it  con- 
tains many  very  fine  private  residences.  Its  pop- 
ulation is  now  about  4000,  chiefly  merchants, 
shippers  and  planters.  It  is  regarded  as  very 
healthy. 

Moca,  fifteen  miles  to  the  eastward  of  Santi- 
ago, is  situated  on  the  north  side  of  the  Koyal 
Plains  which  are  here  about  fifteen  miles  wide. 
Its  site  is  somewhat  elevated,  commanding  an 
extensive  view  of  the  Plains.  Its  streets  are  laid 
out  at  right  angles  and  are  paved.  Its  buildings 
are  generally  frame  and  it  possesses  many  fine 
private  residences.  It  is  healthy  and  the  air 
around  it  pure  and  invigorating.  Its  population 
numbers  about  1500  and  is  increasing,  their  chief 
occupation  being  grazing  cattle. 

La  Vega  is  situated  on  the  south-side  of  the 


64  DOMINICA. 

Royal  Plains,  twenty  miles  east  of  Santiago,  on 
the  right  bank  of  the  Comou  river,  fifteen  miles 
above  its  junction  with  the  Yiina.  Its  site  is 
somewhat  elevated  and  it  is  dry  and  healthy. 
Its  streets  though  not  paved  are  wide  and  straight 
and  are  laid  out  at  right  angles.  Its  buildings 
are  of  brick  and  wood.  Its  population  at  present 
is  about  3000  who  chiefly  follow  grazing  cattle 
for  a  livelihood,  although  there  are  some  mer- 
chants, traders  and  mechanics  in  the  place.  The 
ancient  city  of  Conception-de-la-Yega  which  was 
on  the  left  bank  of  the  Camou  six  or  eight  miles 
above  the  present  site,  was  founded  b}^  Columbus 
in  1495,  by  the  erection  of  a  Fort  and  some 
out  houses  there,  after  his  first  great  battle  with 
the  Indians,  when  it  is  related  that  he  defeated  a 
hundred  thousand  of  them.  A  few  miles  from 
this  spot  and  standing  alone  on  the  plain  is  the 
"  Santa  Sierra,"  (Holy  Mountain)  which  Colum- 
bus with  his  followers,  on  their  first  visit  there 
in  1493,  ascended.  The  view  was  so  magnificent 
from  this  mountain,  and  Columbus  and  his  com- 
panions were  so  charmed  with  the  prospect 
stretching  out  in  its  hallowed  and  pensive  bloom 
before  them  as  far  as  they  could  see,  that  they 
erected  a  cross  on  this  mountain,  called  it  Santa 


crnis  AND  TOWNS.  65 

Sierra  and  the  valley  "  La-Yega-Eeal  "  or  the 
Royal  Plains.  He  subsequently  huilt  the  Fort 
above  mentioned,  on  the  very  site  where  the 
Cacique  of  the  ancient  kingdom  of  Magua  had 
resided.  It  became  a  city  of  great  importance 
afterwards,  in  consequence  of  the  rich  mines  in 
the  neighborhood,  but  was  in  1564  laid  in  ruins 
by  an  earthquake.  Some  years  afterwards  it  was 
rebuilt  on  its  present  site.  The  city  of  La- Vega, 
from  its  location,  from  its  proximity  to  one  of  the 
richest  mining  districts,  and  many  other  natural 
advantages,  is  destined  to  become  one  of  the 
most  important  towns  on  the  north  side  of  the 
island. 

Pedrigal  is  a  small  place  fifteen  miles  from 
La  Vega,  East,  located  on  a  beautiful  site  on  the 
borders  of  a  fine  valley.  The  population,  number- 
ing about  300,  chiefly  follow  grazing  for  a  living. 

JJarhocoa,  located  most  beautifully  in  the 
mountains  at  the  head  of  the  Yaque,  three  miles 
distant  from  Pedrigal,  is  also  in  the  rich  mining 
district.  It  has  a  population  of  about  500, 
chiefly  grazers. 

Macare  is  situated  on  the  south  side  of  the 
Koyal  Plains  near  the  river  Yuna,  forty  miles 
east  of  La- Vega,  and  where  the  river  crosses  the 


66  DOillNICA. 

plain  to  Cotiiy.  Its  site  is  healthy  and  beautiful. 
Its  present  population  numbers  about  1500.  The 
banks  of  the  river  are  low  here,  and  in  addition 
to  corn,  rice  and  beans  a  re  also  cultivated  and 
transported  on  mules  to  Santiago  market.  Some 
tobacco  and  sugar  is  also  raised,  but  the  chief 
vocation  of  the  population  is  raising  cattle  and 
hogs.  The  soil  in  the  valley  here  is  exceedingly 
rich.  The  houses  are  of  brick  and  wood  and  the 
city  well  laid  out. 

Cotuij  is  situated  on  a  little  low  savannah  sur- 
rounded with  wood.  It  is  situated  near  the  right 
bank  of  the  Yuna  about  fifty  miles  from  La- Vega. 
Its  houses,  built  generally  of  wood,  are  small  and 
scattered,  which  gives  if  a  very  irregular  appear- 
ance. It  has  a  Cathedral  and  some  rather  fine 
private  residences,  and  its  population  numbers 
about  300,  the  breeding  of  animals  and  particu 
larly  hogs  being  their  almost  exclusive  occupa- 
tion. There  is  some  tobacco  and  a  little  sugar  cul- 
tivated in  the  neighborhood.  In  consequence  of 
its  low  situation  it  is  not  regarded  as  very  healthy. 
Cotuy  was  founded  in  1505,  and  was  originally 
called  "  The  Mines  "  from  the  rich  gold  and  other 
mines  in  its  vicinity,  and  was  once  a  place  of 
great  importance.     Like  all  these  ancient  towns, 


CITIK8  AND  TOWNS.  67 

it  has  undergone  many  vicissitudes  and  suffered 
many  disasters. 

Samana,  a  town  of  about  500  inhabitants,  is 
located  on  the  north  side  of  the  bay  of  that  name, 
about  twenty-five  miles  from  its  entrance.  It  is 
beautifully  located  on  a  little  bay  or  harbor  of 
great  depth,  and  about  a  mile  wide.  The  hills 
and  mountains  rise  just  back  of  it  to  a  great 
liight  on  the  peninsula  of  Samana,  which  is 
here  about  fifteen  miles  wide.  The  small  vessels 
and  coasters  that  trade  to  the  Pay  of  Samana, 
touch  at  this  place,  which  makes  it  a  point  of 
considerable  importance.  Savanna  la,  Mar  on 
the  opposite  side  of  the  bay  is  also  a  place  of 
some  importance. 

8t.  Domingo  City,  the  capital  of  the  Domini- 
can Republic,  is  situated  on  the  south  coast,  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Ozama  river,  on  its  right  bank. 
It  is  nearly  in  the  form  of  an  oblong  square,  and 
inclosed  by  a  wall  about  one  mile  on  its  longest 
side  and  about  three-quarters  on  its  shortest. 
Tiiese  walls  were  in  ancient  times  flanked  with 
bastions.  It  is  regular  and  spacious,  the  streets 
being  nearly  at  right  angles,  some  paved  and 
others  not.  It  is  pretty  compactly  built  up  within 
the  walls.     The  houses  are  of  stone  and  w  >od 


§8  DOMINICA. 

generally  one  story  in  higlit,  with  flat  roofs  and 
projecting  lattice  windows.  Tlie  chief  public 
buildings  are  the  Cathedral,  commenced  in  1514 
and  finished  in  1540,  the  Custom  House,  the 
Government  Buildings,  a  College,  a  Citadel,  and 
a  Hospital,  and  a  numher  of  Churches  and 
Chapels.  The  ashes  of  Columbus  and  his  brother 
Bartholomew  reposed  in  the  vaults  of  the  Cathe- 
dral here  for  nearly  two  'hundred  and  fifty  j^ears, 
when,  during  the  French  occupancy  of  the  is- 
land, they  were  removed  to  Havanna.  The 
Convents,  of  which  there  were  formally  seven, 
are  now  in  rains,  as  is  also  the  Jesuits'  College, 
and  many  other  ancient  structures.  It  is  the 
most  important  commercial  port  of  the  Republic. 
Its  population  numbers  about  10,000,  Although 
it  is  still  a  large  and  magnificent  city,  yet  the 
visitor  as  he  walks  through  its  streets  is  forcibly 
struck  with  the  traces  and  relics  of  its  ancient 
splendor.  It  was  founded  in  1496  by  Bartho- 
lomew Columbus,  on  the  left  bank  of  the  river. 
In  1502  it  was  laid  in  ruins  by  a  hurricane,  when 
it  was  rebuilt  on  its  present  site  and  in  a  few 
years  afterwards  advanced  so  rapidly  that  it  was 
equal  in  beauty,  refinement  and  opulence  to  any 


CITIKS  AND  TOWNS.  69 

city  of  01(1  S[iuiri.  Sir  Francis  Druive  took  it  by 
assault,  pillaged  and  nearly  destroyed  it  in  1586. 
The  earthquakes  of  16S-i  and  1691  destroyed 
most  of  its  magnificent  buildings,  and  the  spolia- 
tions of  the  Haytians  during  their  occupancy  of 
it  from  ]822  to  1824,  deprived  it  of  many  of  its 
most  interesting  monuments. 

Manuel  about  fifty  miles  west  of  St.  Domingo 
City,  is  situated  on  the  highlands  back  some  dis- 
tance from  the  coast,  and  is  a  place  of  some  im- 
portance from  the  fVict  of  more  sugar  plantations 
being  under  cultivation  in  its  neighborhood  than 
other  towns  on  the  south  coast.  Its  site  is  ele- 
vated and  dry  and  peculiarly  healthy.  Its  popu- 
lation is  about  500,  chiefly  engaged  in  sugar 
manufacturing, 

Azua  about  seventy  miles  west  of  St.  Domingo 
Cityr,  is  also  located  on  the  highlands  that  rise 
here  back  from  the  rocky  coast,  and  about  three 
miles  northward  from  it.  Its  situation  is  exceed- 
ingly elevated,  being  in  the  centre  of  a  high 
plain  or  plateau  that  rises  from  those  elevated 
plains.  It  is  regularly  laid  out  in  broad  streets 
that  intersect  each  other  at  right  angles.  Its 
population  numbers  about  400,  who  are  jM-inci- 


70  DOMINICA. 

pally  engaj^t'd  in  the  sn<;ar  culture.  It  is  a  very 
ancient  city,  being  touuded  in  1501,  and  soon  grew 
into  importance  on  account  of  the  rich  mines  in 
its  neighborhood.  A  Mint  and  an  Assay  Office 
were  established  here  during  the  prosperous  years 
of  the  Colony.  Here  Cortez  was  a  Public  No- 
tary, its  ancient  Public  Buildings  are  now  in 
ruins.  It  has  been  several  times  sacked  and 
nearly  destroyed  by  French  pri  ateers  and  free- 
booters, and  in  1751  was  seriously  injured  by  an 
earthquake.  It  is  remarkably  dry  and  healthy, 
little  or  no  rain  ever  falling  dui-ing  the  entire 
year,  but  instead,  heavy  dews  every  night. 

Sa7i  Jtuin  de  la  Maguana,  is  situated  on  the 
right  bank  of  the  river  Neiva,  where  it  bends 
round  from  the  West  to  the  South,  and  has  a 
most  beautiful  and  picturesque  site.  Its  popula- 
tion at  present  numbers  about  500,  It  and  the 
region  around  it  are  remarkabl}^  healthy.  It  was 
anciently  of  great  importance,  being  situated  in 
a  rich  mining  district.  It  vvas  founded  in  1503. 
It  is  built  upon  the  site  of  the  Capital  of  the  an- 
cient Indian  Kingdom  of  Maguana,  and  has  been 
several  times  overran,  pillaged  and  destroyed. 

Banica  and  HincTia^  both  situated  on  the  head 


CrriKS   AND  TOWNS.  71 

waters  of  the  Artiljonite,  about  twenty  miles 
asunder,  are  of  comparatively  recent  date,  when 
compared  with  San  Juan  and  Azna.  The  popu- 
lation of  each  is  about  3iiO 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  foregoing  com- 
prises all  the  towns  and  cities  of  Dominica. 
There  are  a  number  of  others,  and  some  perliaps 
of  equal  size  and  importance  to  some  of  those 
already  mentioned,  but  to  advert  to  them  all  in 
this  connection  would  not  comport  with  our  pre- 
sent pur{)03e,  and  besides  it  would  prove  of  but 
little  interest  to  the  reader.  It  may  be  remarked 
generally  however,  that  they  nearly  all  partake  of 
the  same  general  characteristic  of  decay  and  ruin, 
when  compared  with  their  former  greatness. 
The  reader  can  gaia  no  proper  idea  of  their  an- 
cient splendor,  population  and  opulence  by  con- 
templating them  in  their  present  condition.  A 
singular  fact  however  is,  that  by  far  the  greater 
part  of  the  present  population  of  Dominica,  re- 
sides in  these  cities  and  towns,  and  in  their  i»m- 
mediate  vicinities.  The  areas  for  greater  or 
less  distances  around  the  towns  are  somewhat 
settled  and  cultivated,  more  highly  about  ono 
town  and  less  around  another,  as  it  affords  greater 


72  POMINICA. 

or  le?is  advantages  and  trie  inhabitants  are  more 
or  less  thrifty.  The  interior  of  the  country  is 
comparatively  a  desolate  waste,  the  valleys,  sa- 
vannahs and  meadows  being  made  use  of  for 
grazing  purposes  by  those  who  live  in  the  cities 
and  towns  or  their  vicinities.  The  traveler  in 
going  over  the  island,  frequently  passes  through 
large  districts  without  meeting  with  any  indica- 
tions of  settlement  and  cultivation.  The  towns 
are  the  nucleii  or  centers  of  the  population,  from 
whence  it  shades  off,  with  some  more  and  v/ith 
some  less,  until  it  almost  entirely  ceases.  With 
the  exception  of  the  Monte  Christi  Yalley  from 
Guyabin  up  to  Santiago,  and  from  thence  east- 
ward through  the  Royal  Plains  to  Cotuy,  this  is 
pre-eminently  the  case.  In  passing  over  the 
main  roads,  the  little  settlements  are  often  a  day's 
journey  apart.  It  is  easily  imagined  what  a 
population  would  be  required  to  fill  up  these  in- 
terspaces with  a  thrifty  and  energetic  people. 
What  gave  almost  all  these  towns  their  original 
importance  was  their  various  proximities  to  the 
mines.  The  mines  in  a  measure  located  and  built 
the  cities  and  gave  them  their  first  impetus  much 
as  the  cities  of  California  and  other  mining  dis- 


CUMAlii  AM)  SKAKONS.  73 

tricts  owe  their  population  and  thrift  chiefly  to 
the  mining  interests  iu  their  neighborhood. 


SECTION"  Y. 

7  he  Climate,  Seasons  and  Temperature. 

The  peculiar  formation  of  the  island,  its  lofty 
and  irregular  ranges  of  mountains,  its  high  and 
low  valleys  and  plains,  its  dense  mountain  forests 
and  open  savannahs,  its  high  and  rocky  and  some- 
times low  and  flat  coasts,  its  deep  inlets  and  bays 
with  their  corresponding  promontories  and  j)ro- 
jections,  besides  a  multitude  of  other  local  circum- 
stances, cause  a  great  diversity  of  climate.  This 
variety  is  augmented  by  the  winds  and  breezes 
which  constantly  prevail  there,  varying  however 
in  direction  and  intensity  as  the  seasons  vary.  In 


74  DOMINICA, 

the  absence  of  any  countervailing  causes  to  bal- 
ance the  action  and  influence  of  a  vertical  sun 
which  darts  its  rays  almost  perpendicularly  on 
the  island  during  three  months  of  the  year,  the 
te'mperature  would  be  almost  insupportable.  But 
by  an  immutable  order,  fascinating  to  the  contem- 
plative mind,  nature  has  beneficently  establish- 
ed a  sort  of  equilibrium  in  her  forces  here,  by 
which  the  otherwise  too  scorching  beams  of  the 
torrid  sun  are  mollified,  toned  down  and  temper 
ed  to  a  coolness  and  freshness  that  is  really  de- 
lightful. The  mountains,  piercing  the  uppe"  and 
cooler  strata  of  the  air,  break  up  the  nniformity 
of  the  aerial  currents,  and  disperse  them  through 
the  valleys  and  over  the  plains.  The  upper  cur- 
rents and  regular  trade  M'inds  being  often  thus 
broken  up  by  the  mountains,  sweep  at  times  gen- 
tly and  at  times  strongly,  in  every  direction 
through  the  valleys,  according  to  the  course  in 
which  they  are  turned  by  the  various  and  diverse 
ranges  of  mountains.  During  these  storms  the 
sea  and  land  breezes  are  suspended.  The  abund 
ant  rains  and  showers  and  dews  which  fall,  to- 
gether with  the  almost  equal  length  of  the  days 
and  nights,  moisten  the  atmosphere  and  the  soil. 


CLIMATE  AND  SEASONS. 


75 


and  drench  the  forests  and  the  vegetation,  fit- 
ting them  to  absorb  the  rays,  producing  evapo- 
ration and  cooling  and  salubrifying  the  air. 

The  competent  reader,  who  is  somewhat  famil- 
iar with  meteoric  phenomena,  will  readily 
apprehend  that  after  the  mountains,  valleys  and 
plains  are  cooled  and  refreshed  during  the  night, 
the  coolest  temperature  being  centered  in  the  is- 
land and  shading  off  towards  the  coast,  as  the  sun 
rises  in  the  morning  heating  the  expanse  of  the 
eastern  waters,  this  cool  air  begins  to  move  in 
gentle  breezes  out  from  the  centre  of  the  island  to 
the  sea,  increasing  in  intensity  until  the  sun 
reaches  his  meridian,  a  few  hours  after  which  it 
begins  to  abate  and  ceases  about  sunset.  This 
is  called  the  land  or  day  hreeze^  and  agitates  and 
cools  the  air  during  the  day.  Then  again  soon 
after  sunset,  the  interior  mountains  and  valleys, 
retaining  their  ingathered  heat  during  the  day, 
and  the  sea  cooling,  the  direction  of  the  breeze  is 
changed  and  the  wind  begins  to  blow  back  from 
the  sea  to  the  interior  valleys  and  mountains,  in- 
creasing in  intensity  until  about  two  or  three 
o'clock  in  the  morning  when  it  abates,  and  ceases 
a  little  before  sunrise.     This  is  called  the  sea  or 


76  DOMINICA. 

night  hreeze^  and  agitates  and  cools  the  air  during 
the  night. 

The  effect  of  these  two  breezes  forms  a  very 
curious  contrast.  That  of  the  sea  coming  from 
the  circumference  (chiefly  however  from  the  East) 
towards  the  centre,  advances  in  that  general  di- 
rection, (although  its  direction  is  modified  some- 
what by  the  courses  of  the  valleys  and  ridges,) 
agitating  the  leaves  and  murmuring  in  the  for- 
ests, while  the  land  breeze  has  an  effect  exactly 
opposite,  and  the  more  the  situation  approxi- 
mates the  centre  of  the  island,  the  sooner  does  it 
manifest  itself.  It  must  not  however  be  imagined 
that  the  alternation  and  succession  of  these  breezes 
are  so  uniform  as  not  to  be  affected  by  other  and 
extraneous  causes.  At  certain  times  of  the  year, 
particularly  during  the  equinoxes  and  solstices, 
the  sea  breeze  becomes  very  strong,  sometimes 
even  impetuous,  and  during  several  days  blows 
without  interval  or  with  very  brief  cessations, 
during  which  the  land  breeze  is  not  felt  at  all. 
At  such  seasons  the  sea  breeze  usually  augments 
at  the  rising  of  the  sun  as  if  encouraged  by  his 
presence.  At  other  times  the  land-breeze  pre- 
dominates, particularly  during  the  tempestuous 


CLIMATK  AND  SEASONS.  Y7 

season  in  April,  May  and  June.  As  almost  all 
the  thunder  storms  are  formed  and  come  from 
the  interior  of  the  island,  as  soon  as  they  begia 
to  overspread  the  sky  the  sea  breeze  is  beaten 
back  and  dies  away,  leaving  the  empire  of  the 
horizon  to  the  land.  After  the  storm  is  past,  the 
land  breeze  often  continues  predominant  during 
the  night,  when  in  the  morning  the  sea  breeze 
drives  it  back  to  its  retreat  in  the  mountains.  It  is 
only  during  those  seasons  that  the  reciprocal  al- 
ternation and  combination  of  these  breezes  are  in- 
verted and  they  are  foi'ced  to  contend,  for  it  must 
be  well  observed,  that  in  the  season  of  excessive 
heat,  when  nature  most  requires  its  benignant 
agency,  the  sea  breeze  seldom  fails,  and  even 
when  it  does  so,  its  absence  hastens  the  return  of 
the  equally  beneficent  land-breeze.  "  These  re- 
freshing and  exhilarating  breezes,"  observes  an 
English  writer,  long  a  resident  in  the  island, 
"give  to  the  whole  body  a  halcyon  sensation  of 
calm,  in  which  the  soul  soon  participates.  In 
the  evening  the  sea-breeze  invites  sleep  and  ren- 
ders it  restorative,  and  in  the  morning  the  land- 
breeze  invigorates  the  body,  strengthens  the  fibres 
and  even  prolongs  life." 

The  seasons  of  the  island  are  not  distinguish- 


78  DOMINICA. 

able  into  Winter  and  Summer  as  they  are  in  the 
middle  and  northern  zones.  Although  there  are 
four  plainly  marked  seasons  there,  corresponding 
to  our  four  seasons  here,  they  are  not  discriminat- 
ed into  hot  and  cold,  but  into  the  rainy  and  dry 
seasons^  of  which  there  are  two  of  each.  They 
are  not  always  uniform  either  in  their  commence- 
ment, return  or  duration,  some  of  them  varying 
in  this  respect  several  weeks  and  even  a  month. 
Nor  indeed  are  they  uniform  all  over  the  island, 
the  dry  or  rainy  season  commencing  or  ending 
at  one  locality  weeks  and  even  months  before  it 
commences  or  ends  at  another.  In  fact  in  some 
localities  the  changes  of  the  seasons  are  not  at  all 
observable,  as  is  the  case  with  the  high  region  or 
table  land  around  about  Maniel  and  Azua  on  the 
south  side  of  the  island,  where  it  is  said  to  scarce- 
ly ever  rain,  a  heavy  dew  like  a  drewling  show- 
er falling  every  night.  But  as  a  general  rule,  we 
may  say  that  the^/'5^  rainy  season  begins,  especi- 
ally on  the  north  side  of  the  island,  about  the 
first  of  October,  and  continues  to  the  latter  part 
of  December,  during  which  it  rains  every  day. 
This  is  the  first  season  for  planting  tobacco,  corn 
and  other  native  or  indigenous  products,  as  there 


CLIMATK  AND  SKAS*)NS.  79 

are  two  crops  of  tobacco  aud  sometimes  three  of 
corn  and  sugar  cane  grown  and  cut  per  annum. 
^I\i&  first  dry  season,  begins  about  the  first  of  Jan- 
uary, and  lasts  until  the  last  of  March,  during 
which  little  rain  falls.  This  is  the  season  for 
gathering  the  first  crops.  The  second  and  short 
rainy  season  begins  about  the  first  of  April,  and 
lasts  until  about  the  second  week  in  June,  during 
which  time  the  second  crops  are  planted.  This 
is  the  period  when  thunder-storms  most  prevail. 
Tile  second  dry  season  begins  about  the  middle 
of  June  and  lasts  until  the  close  of  September, 
during  which  time  the  second  crops  are  harvest- 
ed. 

During  the  rainy  season,  rain  falls  every  day 
and  sometimes  five  or  six  times  a  day.  From 
three  to  five  inches  of  water  has  fallen  during 
twenty  four  hours.  Sometimes,  and  particularly 
during  the  thunder  storm  or  second  rainy  season, 
it  will  be  raining  on  the  mountains  and  dry  on 
the  plains  or  vice  versa,  and  often  raining  on  one 
mountain  range  or  in  one  valley,  and  clear  in  an- 
other at  no  great  distance.  But  usually,  and  par- 
ticularly during  the  first  rainy  season,  these  daily 
rains  come  on  and  cease  about  the  same  hour 


80  DOMINICA. 

every  day,  so  that  if  a  journey  is  to  be  made,  the 
people  are  accustomed  to  take  into  account  these 
periodical  rains  and  make  their  calculations  to 
arrive  at  their  journeys  end,  or  reach  such  and 
such  a  shelter  Ijefore  the  rain  comes  on.  If  the 
rain  begins  earlier  in  the  day  it  lasts  longer ;  if 
later  it  sooner  ceases,  thus  growing  less  in  amount 
and  duration  as  the  dry  season  approaches,  when 
it  ceases.  From  this  cause  the  rains  do  not  pre- 
vent travel  and  out-door  labor  as  much  as  one 
would  be  apt  to  expect.  Frequently  these  rains 
are  exceedingly  violent  and  copious,  and  coming 
on  suddenly,  instantly  the  streets  are  impassible, 
in  a  few  moments  more  the  brooks  surcharged 
and  overflowing,  and  in  a  very  short  time  after 
the  larger  streams  and  rivers  foam  up  and  roar 
and  boil  as  they  carry  their  liquid  burdens  to 
the  seas  and  bays.  However,  the  rainy  seasons 
there  are  not  precisely  what  we  would  infer  from 
a  rainy  season  in  the  northern  latitudes.  There 
are  no  long  continual  and  general  rains  such  as 
we  sometimes  experience  in  this  latitude,  but 
they  consist  for  the  most  part  of  short  and  fre- 
quent, light  and  heavy  showers,  which  drenching 
the  hills  and  mountains,  run  of  rapidly,  and  the 


CLIMA.TE  AND  SEASONS.  81 

Bun  coming  out  immediately  afterwards,  dries  up 
with  its  torrid  rays  the  previous  shower.  The 
frequent  and  heavy  showers  and  thunder  storms, 
that  fall  oftentimes  in  this  latitude  during  an 
otherwise  bright  and  sunny  April  or  May  day, 
measurably  typify  the  rainy  seasons  in  St.  Do- 
ming. These  rains,  together  with  the  alternating 
warm  and  fructifying  rays  of  the  sun  upon  a 
most  genial  and  fecund  soil,  bring  forward  the 
vegetation,  unfold  the  leaves  and  flowers  and 
mature  the  fruits  and  crops  almost  like  the  touch 
of  a  magician's  wand  ! 

The  teiryperature  of  the  Island  differs,  tliough 
not  very  sensibly,  at  diiJ'erent  points  and  locali- 
ties. It  is  cooler  and  drier,  of  course,  on  the 
mountains  and  upland  valleys  and  plains  than  on 
different  parts  of  the  coasts  and  lowlands.  Al- 
though at  Port  Platte,  the  northern  'rort  of  En- 
try, and  at  Monte  Christi,  it  is  almost  always  cool 
and  pleasant.  In  the  mountains  and  upland 
plains  and  valleys,  the  thermometer  rarely  rises 
above  75  '^  Fahrenheit,  while  on  the  plains  of 
Monte  Christi  and  La  Vega  (the  Koyal  Plains), 
it  rarely  rises  above  90  '^  .  The  nights  are  some- 
times cold  enough  to  render  a  quilt  or  a  blanket 


82  DOMINICA. 

not  uncomfortable,  and  on  the  highlands  and 
mountains  a  fire  is  very  often  agreeable  in  the 
evenings.  Not  that  the  cold  is  ever  very  con 
siderable  up  there,  since  the  range  of  the  ther 
mometer  is  from  30  '^  to  T5  *^ ,  but  the  contras 
of  this  temperature  with  that  of  the  day,  pro- 
duces a  sensation  to  which  the  terminology  of 
hot  and  cold  is  not  to  be  applied  as  in  these 
latitudes.  On  the  tops  of  some  of  the  highest 
mountains,  such  as  the  Ciboa,  during  the  season 
improperly  called  cold,  a  still  more  chilly  sensa- 
tion is  felt,  and  the  water  has  often  a  thin  pellicle 
of  ice  on  its  surface.  About  St.  Domingo  City, 
and  on  "  los  Uaiios,"  to  the  East  of  it,  and 
around  the  South-east  coast,  the  hottest  and  most 
sultry  temperature  is  found.  In  the  region  about 
Maniel  and  Azua,  about  sixty  miles  West  of 
St.  Domingo  City,  which  is  high  rolling  and 
table  land,  it  is  perpetually  mild  and  pleasant. 
It  is  a  fact,  I  dare  say,  within  the  experience  of 
every  one  who  has  visited  and  sojourned  on  the 
island  any  considerable  length  of  time,  that  they 
have  not,  and  do  not  suffer  from  the  heat,  even 
in  the  hottest  seasons,  near  so  much  as  they  have 
at  times  in  the  Summer  in  the  northern  and  New 


CLIMATE  AND  SKASONS.  83 

England  States,  There  is  very  little  general 
change  of  temperature  throughout  the  year,  in 
any  part  of  the  island. 

From  what  has  been  already  observed  in  re- 
gard to  the  climate,  seasons  and  temperature, 
the  reader  may  legitimately  infer  the  sanitary 
condition  of  the  island.  Notwithstanding  the 
highly  exaggerated  and  almost  wholly  falla- 
cious belief  to  the  contrary,  which  unfortunately 
prevails  pretty  extensively  in  the  United  States, 
St.  Domingo  is  as  healthy  as  any  country  in  the 
New  World.  Some  districts  are  peculiarly 
healthy  and  conducive  to  longevity,  among  which 
may  be  mentioned  Monte  Christi  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Yaque  on  the  Monte  Christi  Bay,  and 
which  is  even  a  place  of  resort  for  invalids  to  re- 
cruit their  health:  the  Monte  Christi  Valley, 
Santiago,  Moco,  La  Yega,  and  the  Royal  Plains 
on  the  North  portion  of  the  Island,  and  San  Juan 
de  la  Maguana,  Manuel,  Azua  and  Banica  on  the 
South  portion,  and  even  at  Port  Platte  cases  of 
sickness  rarely  occur,  and  there  is  not  now  a 
physician  in  the  place,  although  it  numbers  over 
4,000  inhabitants.  The  valleys  and  plains  high 
up  in  the  mountains  are  unexceptionally  and  uni- 


84  DOMINICA. 

formly  healthy  and  salubrious,  the  air  beinf^  as 
fresh  and  bracing  and  pure  as  that  of  the  moun- 
tains of  Scotland. 

It  is  true  that  yellow  fever  is  indigenous,  and 
occasionally  in  some  localities  prevails  much  as 
fever  and  ague  prevails  in  miasmatic  and  swampy 
districts  in  the  States ;  but  it  is  by  no  means  so 
fatal  as  when  it  breaks  out  in  epidemic  forms 
here.  It  is  regarded  there  as  comparatively 
harmless,  when  not  the  result  of  gross  impru- 
dence. The  destruction  of  the  French  and  Span- 
ish armies  there  in  years  or  rather  ages  past,  was 
referable  to  their  ignorance  concerning  it,  the 
means  of  avoiding  and  the  mode  of  treating  it, 
and  the  culpable  imprudence  of  the  troops  in 
feasting  indiscriminately  and  immoderately  on 
the  luscious  and  abundant  fruits  of  the  island,  and 
exposing  themselves  to  the  chilly  night  air  after 
the  heat  and  fatigue  of  the  day.  It  then  assumed 
epidemic  forms  and  carried  off  thousands  in 
brief  periods  of  time.  But  of  late  years  no  such 
mortality  has  been  known,  and  even  in  former 
times  none  to  equal  its  fatality  in  New  York  and 
Philadelphia  towards  the  end  of  the  last  century, 
and  at  Norfolk,  Ya.,  a  few  years   ago.      The 


CLIMATE  A.ND  SEASONS.  85 

causes  that  produce  it  are  now  ascertained  and 
fixed  almost  as  accurately  as  mathematics.  For 
the  benefit  of  those  who  may  hereafter  visit  the 
island,  I  w^ill  briefly  signalize  the  chief  of  those 
causes  here.  They  are,  too  much  exposure  by 
those  predisposed  to  gastric  and  biliary  difficul- 
ties to  the  meridian  sun  without  an  adequate 
covering  to  the  head,  such  as  an  umbrella  or 
broad  shady  hat,  too  much  exposure  by  the  same 
class  to  the  night  air  and  cold  mists  of  the  coast 
and  lower  valleys  and  plains,  and  eating  too 
abundantly  of  the  fruits  in  the  afternoon  and 
evening,  or  retiring  to  rest  and  sleeping  with  a 
stomach  loaded  with  undigested  fruits.  For  these 
reasons  the  dispeptic  and  unaccli mated  should 
wear  light  flannel  next  the  skin,  avoid  the  un- 
shaded heat  of  the  noon  and  eat  no  fruits  in  the 
afternoon  and  evening.  In  case  of  an  attack,  the 
timely  administration  of  anything  that  will  quick- 
en the  action  of  the  biliary  and  gastric  processes 
will  speedily  carry  it  off.  It  is  not  contagious, 
and  when  a  case  occurs  there,  it  creates  no  more 
panic  among  the  neighbors  and  inhabitants  than 
a  case  of  ordinary  bilious  fever  does  here. 

Before  concluding  this  section,  brief  mention 


86  DOMINICA, 

should  also  bo  made  of  the  gales  and  hurri- 
canes on  this  Island,  as  also  of  the  earthquakes^ 
&c.  The  former  do  not  differ  essentially  from 
those  which  blow  on  the  other  islands  of  the  An 
tilles,  particularly  on  the  recurrence  of  the  equi- 
noxes and  solstices.  When  they  rise  it  is  always 
towards  the  close  of  the  day,  and  when  the  at 
mosphere  is  in  a  perfect  calm,  or  between  sun  set 
and  sun  rise.  They  come  on  with  little  premo- 
nition, and  frequently  raoje  violently  accompan- 
ied with  rain,  thunder  and  lightning  for  five  or 
six  hours,  when  they  cease  almost  as  suddenly  as 
they  began.  The  previous  calm  of  the  at- 
mosphere, or  the  lulling  and  stoppage  of  the  sea 
and  land  breezes,  are  the  chief  indications  of 
their  approach.  They  are  sometimes  very  des- 
tructive to  the  shipping  in  the  harbors,  and  are 
more  violent  on  the  South  side  of  the  island  than 
on  the  North.  The  writer  is  assured  however, 
that  the  injury  to  the  shipping  interests  from  this 
cause,  is  as  much  occasioned  by  the  present  con- 
dition of  the  harbors,  especially  on   the  north 

side,  as  from  the  gales  themselves.  The  vessels 
entering  the  harbor  at  Port  Platte  cannot,  on  ac- 
count of  shoal  water,  get  within  half  a  mile  of 


CLIMATE  AND  SEASONS.  87 

the  shore,  and  are  obliged  to  anchor  out  and  dis- 
charge their  cargoes  by  means  of  lighters,  and 
when  a  gale  occurs,  if  its  violence  is  such  as  to 
drag  them  from  their  anchors,  thej  go  ashore  and 
are  lost. 

Shocks  of  earthquakes  are  frequent  on  the  is- 
land, indicating  the  original  volcanic  character 
of  the  place.  No  serious  loss  of  property  and 
life  has  occurred  from  this  cause  however,  for 
many  generations ;  although  the  shocks  some- 
times crack  the  walls  of  the  buildings  and  do 
other  immaterial  damage  to  property.  For  this 
reason  the  inhabitants,  especially  on  the  North 
side  of  the  island,  when  they  build  of  brick  or 
masonry,  support  their  walls  by  incorporating 
with  them  a  frame-work  of  timber.  The  lightn- 
ing sometimes  strikes  the  trees  and  the  more  ele- 
vated buildings  as  it  does  in  this  latitude,  but  is 
by  no  means  a  serious  source  of  annoyance  or 
danger. 


SECTION  VI. 


The  Soil. 


It  has  already  been  remarked,  that  the  soil  of 
the  island  of  St.  Domingo,  is  constituted  of  the 
debris  of  the  mountains  and  hills  and  the  decay- 
ed veijjetation  of  past  ages.  When  we  reflect 
that  these  prodigious  mountains  differ  remarkably 
and  essentially  in  their  geological  constituents 
and  that  the  contrast  is  truly  striking,  sometimes 
between  mountains  and  even  hills  in  juxtaposi- 
tion, it  will  appear  how  endless  would  be  the 
task  of  speaking  definitely  and  particularly  of  all 
the  various  kinds  of  soil  that  are  to  be  found  on 
the  island.  The  soil  of  the  valleys,  slopes  and 
plains,  partaking  of  the  characteristics  of  the  hills 
and  mountains  on,  beneath,  beside  and  betwixt 
which  they  are  found,  varies  as  they  varj.  In 
one  place  we  find  it  a  rich  vegetable  mould,  in 


THE   SOIL.  89 

another  a  mixture  of  this  mould  with  pebbles  or 
sand,  in  another  a  light,  loose  spongy  loam,  in 
another  a  loose  marl,  in  another  a  clayey  marl, 
in  another  a  soi]  formed  of  dissolved  or  pulveriz- 
ed coral  and  shells,  and  in  another  of  pure  clay 
or  sand.  It  differs  also  in  color  and  depth  as 
much  as  it  differs  in  constitution  and  quality. 
Sometimes  it  is  yellow,  though  still  retaining  its 
productive  qualities ;  sometimes  it  is  red,  some- 
times of  a  bluish  cast,  sometimes  of  a  dark,  mud- 
dy or  lava  color,  but  most  generally  it  is  black, 
and  its  depth  varies  from  ten  feet  to  six  inches. 
In  the  valleys  and  slopes,  in  and  on  the  moun- 
tains, and  on  the  savannahs  and  plains  it  is  gene- 
rally a  rich  black  loam,  varying  in  depth  from 
three  to  ten  feet.  In  the  lowlands  on  some  of 
the  coasts,  it  is  a  salt  meadow  or  quagmire,  with- 
out any  solid  bottom  except  where  the  roots  of 
the  mangrove  ramify  and  interlace  so  as  to  retain 
the  vegetable  portion  of  it  carried  there  by  the 
streams,  while  further  back  it  is  formed  into  a 
solid  earth,  bearing  abundance    of   marine-figs, 

flags,  sea-rushes  and  tall  grass.  The  deepest  and 
richest  soil  is  found  in  the  valleys  at  and  near  the 
mouths  of  the  principal  rivers,  and  is  made  up 


90  DOMINICA. 

of  the  alluvial  deposits  brought  down  by  these 
streams. 

So  variable  are  the  nature  and  characteristics 
of  the  soil,  that  it  often  radically  changes  in  pass- 
ing from  one  side  of  a  valley  to  another  or  cross- 
ing a  stream,  and  sometimes  differs  essentially 
on  the  opposite  banks  of  the  rivers  ;  and  often  in 
passing  along  the  road,  it  will  be  observed  to 
change  in  the  course  of  a  few  rods  or  even  feet. 
In  the  larger  valleys  and  plains,  especially  some 
distance  from  the  mountains,  it  is  more  uniform, 
and  more  uniform  on  the  South  side  of  the  island 
than  in  the  interior  and  on  the  North  side.  "Los 
llanos"  to  the  east  of  St.  Domingo  city,  and  the 
district  of  country  "West  of  it  as  far  as  the  river 
Neiva,  are  less  variable  in  the  nature  of  their 
soils  than  perhaps  any  other  districts  of  the  same 
extent,  "  los  llaiios  "  being  formed  of  a  rich  veg- 
etable mould,  and  the  coast  region  west  of  St. 
Domingo  city  until  beyond  Azua,  being  constitu- 
ted of  dissolved  coral  and  Crustacea,  of  which  in- 
deed almost  all  the  South  side  of  the  island  is 
formed.  The  soil  of  Monte  Christi  valley,  the 
Royal  Plains,  savannah  Eglesia,  the  valley  of 
Constance,  the  upper  valleys  of  the  Neiva,  and 


THE   SOIL.  91 

in  fact  almost  all  tlie  valleys  lying  between  the 
centre  and  North  and  the  centre  and  South  range 
of  mountains  and  their  secondary  branches,  is 
formed  of  a  deep  and  exceedingly  rich  black 
loam,  sustaining  a  varied  and  enormous  vegeta- 
tion. On  some  of  the  mountains  and  their  ele- 
vated slopes,  the  soil  is  good  and  the  grass  and 
other  similar  undergrowth,  grows  dense  and 
rank  to  their  very  tops,  while  the  elevated  por- 
tions of  others  sustain  only  broken  and  ragged 
forests  of  pitch  pine,  interspersed  with  palm  and 
many  hard  and  durable  woods.  Others  of  these 
mountains  are  again  bald  and  sterile  on  their 
tops  and  around  their  summits,  peering  up 
through  the  green  and  heavy  foliage  below  like 
naked  cones. 

An  analysis  of  the  soil  at  different  places,  at- 
tests the  fact  that  it  is  highly  impregnated  with 
the  minerals  peculiar  to  the  mountains,  which 
probably  accounts  for  its  variety  in  color  in  dif- 
ferent localities,  It  has  been  found  to  contain 
iron,  sulphur,  copper,  antimony,  mercury,  gold, 
cobalt,  manganese,  salt  and  other  minerals,  in  va- 
rious combinations  and  conditions  at  different 
points.     The  gold  is  of  course  found   pure  and 


92  DOMINICA. 

diffused  in  the  soil  almost  all  over  the  island,  in 
Bome  places  being  only  very  slightly  traceable 
and  in  others  palpably  so,  concerning  which  we 
will  speak  more  at  length  in  the  sequel.  In  re- 
gard to  the  productiveness  of  the  soil,  but  little 
more  may  be  added  to  what  has  already  been 
said.  Suffice  it  to  say,  that  notwithstanding  its 
diversity  and  variety,  it  is  prolific  beyond  any- 
thing found  in  the  Antilles,  and  not  excelled  by 
that  of  the  Italian  peninsula  or  Sicily,  to  which 
it  bears  a  strong  resemblance.  The  sugar-cane 
grows  the  year  around,  and  so  fast  and  thick,  that 
by  the  time  the  laborer  has  cut  over  and  exhaust- 
ed a  ten  acre  field,  it  is  ready  again  to  cut  where 
he  began.  The  corn,  which  is  cultivated  now  by 
simply  making  a  hole  in  the  ground  and  drojv 
ping  in  the  seed,  with  no  further  care  or  labor, 
grows  to  the  height  of  from  eight  to  fifteen  feet, 
bearing  three  to  five  ears  to  the  stalk.  The  to- 
bacco, which  is  cultivated  with  as  little  scientific 
skill  and  care,  spreads  out  the  broadest  and  sap- 
piest leaves  found  anywhere  in  the  Antilles. 
Other  crops  indigenous  to  the  climate  grow  with 
equal  rapidity  and  strength.  It  is  said  that  in 
some  districts  the  melon,  pumpkin  and  the  squash 


THE  SOIL.  93 

ripen  in  six  weeks  from  the  seed.  The  northern 
cereals  (except  the  corn,)  such  as  the  wheat,  rye, 
barley  &c.,  do  not  grow  there,  if  we  except  the 
region  around  about  Azua,  where  they  can  be 
cultivated  to  advantage,  together  with  many  of 
our  northern  fruits,  such  as  the  apple,  peach, 
cherry  and  pear. 

Such  a  thing  as  a  fertiliser^  an  article  of  such 
extended  traffic  and  so  necessary  to  the  agricul- 
turalist here,  is  not  known  or  thought  of  there, 
nor  will  it  I  apprehend  ever  be  required.  The 
fertility  and  strength  of  the  soil,  containing  all 
the  elementary  constituents  required  to  produce 
and  mature  the  various  vegetable  growths,  could 
not  be  exhausted  even  without  any  return  to  it, 
for  generations.  Besides  the  mountains  themsel- 
ves are  the  great  fertilizers  of  St  Domingo,  and 
will  remain  so  until  they  are  devoured  by  the 
tooth  of  time  and  sink  away  in  distant  ages.  The 
debris  of  these  mountains,  together  with  the  de- 
caying vegetation  on  their  sides  and  tops,  brought 
down  by  the  frequent  rains,  supply  the  soil  in 
the  valleys,  plains  and  sa  van  nans  with  abundant 
and  incessant  recruits.  Its  fecundity  is  a  marvel 
to  the  husbandman  of  these  latitudes. 


SECTION  YII. 

Staples,  Exports  and  Products. 

Tlie  chief  products  of  the  Dominican  part  of 
the  island  are  now,  mahogany,  tobacco,  indigo, 
sugar,  hides,  beeswax,  cocoa  nuts,  oranges,  lemons, 
some  coffee  and  some  fustic,  satin  and  many  other 
kinds  of  wood,  but  the  trade  in  those  articles  now 
is  not  very  considerable.  There  is  a  vast  quan- 
tity of  mahogany  in  the  ten-itory,  standing  in 
groves  on  the  mountains  and  the  plains,  and  scat- 
tered over  the  valleys  and  along  the  rivers  and 
streams.  The  best  mahogany  in  the  West  Indies 
grows  on  this  island.  Some  of  these  groves  and 
trees  are  truly  magnificent,  growing  straight  and 
to  a  great  hight.  The  best  is  now  found  inland, 
as  it  has  been  nearly  all  already  stripped  off  the 
coasts  and  cut  away  from  near  the  mouths  of  the 
principal  rivers  and  around  the  bays,  where  it 


EXPORTS  AND  Kn-ODUOTS.  95 

was  more  accessible  and  of  easier  and  cheaper 
carriage  to  market.  It  has  been  extensively  used 
for  building  purposes  by  the  inhabitants  of  the 
cities,  more  especially  by  those  of  the  interior, 
the  lumber  now  used  in  the  coast  cities  being 
carried  thither  from  the  States,  and  exchanged 
for  mahogany  and  other  products.  It  is  only  of 
late  years  that  the  best  mahogany  cuts  have  be- 
gun to  come  to  this  market,  as  heretofore  they 
were  carried  to  Europe  where  they  brought  a 
better  price. 

Tobacco  is  now  one  of  the  principal  exports. 
But  little  of  it  however  finds  its  way  to  this  mar- 
ket. There  is  a  large  quantity  of  it  raised  bytlie 
residents  on  the  Spanish  part  of  the  island,  jjar- 
ticularly  about  Santiago,  on  the  Royal  Plains  and 
in  the  neis^hborhood  of  Maccrere.  It  is  broujrht 
down  in  bales  or  ceroons  on  mules  to  Port  Platte, 
and  shipped  on  board  Dutch  bottoms  to  Holland 
and  the  Germanic  States.  There  is  also  some 
cultivated  about  St.  Domingo  City  and  around 
the  Bay  of  Samana.  But  the  cultivation  and 
traffic  in  this  commodit}'-  compared  with  what  it 
might  be,  were  those  fertile  plains  and  rich  sa- 
vanahs  settled  by  an  industrious  and  enterprising 


96  DOMINICA. 

people,  is  scarcely  as  a  drop  to  the  bucket.  There 
are  regions  in  the  territory  where  tobacco  can  be 
grown  equal  to  the  best  Havanna  brands,  and  on 
account  of  tlie  fecundity  of  the  soil  with  even 
much  less  labor. 

There  are  still  some  good  sugar  plantations  in 
the  Dominican  territory,  chiefly  about  St.  Domin- 
go City  and  to  the  "West  as  far  as  Azua,  but  they 
are  "few  and  far  betv\^een."  The  best  sugar  is 
now  produced  in  the  region  about  Azua  and 
Manuel,  and  is  of  a  very  superior  quality.  The 
country  people  cultivate  and  manufacture,  each 
on  his  own  account,  and  in  his  small  way,  pack 
it  in  ceroons  and  carry  it  down  to  the  coast  on 
mules.  Indeed  the  term  "  cultivate"  is  not  ap- 
propriately used  in  this  connection,  as  the  cane 
grows  up  wild  and  spontaneously  from  season  to 
season,  and  from  year  to  year  in  many  places, 
and  the  inhabitants  have  nothing  whatever  to  do 
but  cut  and  grind  it  in  wooden  mills  and  boil  day 
after  day.  'J  he  writer  is  not  informed  that  they 
use  the  sugar  mills  in  use  in  other  sugar-growing 
countries  in  their  operations.  It  is  easy  to  con- 
ceive what  a  source  of  incalculable  wealtli  the 
culture  of  this  staple  there  would  becoma,  if  in 


EXPORTS  AND  PRODUCTS.  97 

the  hands  of  a  skillful  and  enterprising  popula- 
tion. 

Tlie  trade  in  hides  compared  witli  other  pro- 
ducts is  quite  important,  which  arises  from  the 
fact  that  a  majority  of  the  popuhition  pursue 
grazing  for  a  livelihood,  and  the  rapidity  with 
which  sto-k  increases  and  the  little  care  re- 
quired in  preserving  it.  It  has  been  before  ob- 
served, that  after  the  depopulation  of  the  Colony 
had  commenced  from  the  causes  already  mention- 
ed, the  cattle,  hogs,  &c.,  began  to  run  wild  on  the 
mountains  and  plains  in  countless  herds.  A 
prescriptive  right  to  these  herds  was,  in  later  times 
acquired  by  the  remaining  residents.  The  herds 
multiplied  far  beyond  the  wants  of  the  few  in- 
habitants, and  a  trade  in  hides  afterwards  spring- 
ing up  and  becoming  lucrative,  the  cattle  were 
pursued  and  slaughtered  in  great  quantities  for 
their  hides  alone.  The  vocation  was  congenial 
to  the  inhabitants,  requiring  little  or  no  labor, 
and  the  monotony  of  their  ease  being  relieved  by 
the  excitement  of  the  chase.  In  time,  individ- 
uals and  families  claimed  the  herds  that  wore 
accustomed  to  range  in  certain  valleys,  so  that  the 
property  in  these  herds  and  their  ranges  after- 


ya  DOMINICA. 

wards  became  fixed  and  defined.  Owing  to  the 
heat  and  abundant  oxygen  which  the  atmosphere 
contains,  the  flesh  of  the  beef  unless  properly 
salted  and  cured,  keeps  but  a  day  or  two,  so  that 
the  inhabitants  are  obliged  to  kill  almost  every 
other  day.  This  now,  keeps  up  and  supplies  the 
traffic.  Perhaps  three-fifths  of  the  population  of 
the  interior  country  and  towns  are  now  engaged 
in  grazing. 

Compared  also  with  other  staples,  the  trade  in 
'beeswax  is  considerable.  The  island  producing 
the  greatest  quantity  and  variety  of  flowering 
plants,  shrubs  and  trees,  bees  exist  there  in  incal- 
culable and  immense  swarms.  The  prairies  of 
the  West  in  June  furnish  no  parallel  to  the  flow- 
ers that  perpetually  unfold  on  these  mountains, 
plains  and  valleys.  The  writer  has  been  inform- 
ed by  a  gentleman  who  recently  visited  Domini- 
ca, that  so  strong  and  rank  was  the  odor  from  the 
flowers  in  passing  over  the  Koyal  Plains,  that  it 
so  jaded  his  olfactories  as  to  cause  his  head  to 
ache,  and  almost  made  him  sick.  The  swarms 
build  in  the  rocks,  in  the  trees  and  logs,  under 
the  branches  and  even  on  the  ground.  Those 
who  pursue  this  branch  of  business,  collect  the 


EXPORTS  a:nd  pkoducts.  99 

deposits  in  tubs,  wash  out  the  honey  in  the  brooks 
by  squeezing  the  combs,  and  afterwards  melt  the 
wax  into  cakes  or  run  it  into  vessels  preparatory 
to  carrying  it  to  market.  Those  engaged  in  this 
vocation  are  cl  aefly  women.  The  trade  in  this 
article  however,  bears  no  proportion  to  its  pro- 
duction and  abundance.  They  have  recently  be- 
gun to  save  some  of  the  honey,  and  small  quan- 
tities of  it  has  found  its  way  to  this  market.  The 
reason  why  it  has  not  been  hitherto  saved,  is  ow- 
ing to  the  great  cost  of  vessels  to  collect  it  in,  as 
wooden-ware  of  all  kinds  has  to  be  taken  there 
from  the  States. 

There  are  some  exports  of  cocoa-nuts,  oranges, 
lemons,  limes  and  other  fruit,  all  of  which  are 
ooth  cultivated  and  grow  wild  in  vast  abundance 
on  the  island,  and  are  not  excelled  by  any  in  the 
Antilles,  or  on  the  Spanish  main.  The  labor 
necessary  to  collect  them,  prepare  them  for 
shipment,  and  carry  them  to  the  ports  is  not 
there.  From  this  cause  indeed,  the  whole  Span- 
ish end  of  the  island  languishes  in  sloth,  and  its 
transcendant  wealth  goes  year  after  year  inconti- 
nently to  waste. 

There  is  some  coffee,  which    grows   wild  m 


100  DOMINICA. 

abundance  through  the  island  and  on  the  monn 
tains,  collected  and  shipped.  After  the  abandon- 
ment of  the  coffee  plantations,  the  trees  continued 
to  grow  thick  on  them  and  finally  spread  into  the 
woods  and  on  to  the  mountains,  where  they  now 
grow  wild  in  great  quantities.  Lacking  the  pro- 
per culture  its  quality  is  not  the  best,  but  the  cli- 
mate and  soil  is  capable  of  producing  it  unexcel- 
led by  any  in  Porto  Rico  or  any  of  the  West  In- 
dies or  Brazil.  The  writer  is  informed  however, 
that  there  are  a  few  coffee  plantations  under  cul- 
ture about  St.  Domingo  Hity.  The  labor  of  oul- 
tivatirfg  coffee  and  sugar  in  Dominica,  with  all 
the  modern  appliances  of  civilization,  would  be 
absolutely  insignificant,  compared  with  the  rich 
returns  it  would  bring  the  planter. 

In  addition  to  the  staples  and  exports  above 
mentioned,  the  island  produces  a  vast  number  of 
other  valuable  commodities,  among  which  we 
may  make  notable  mention  of  its  lumber  and  dif- 
ferent varieties  of  valuable  wood  other  thau  ma- 
hogany. The  pitch  or  yellow  pine  grows  in  vast 
abundance  at  the  head  of  the  streams  and  on  the 
mountains,  dark  and  apparently  impenetrable 
forests  of  which  cover  their  sides  and  tops.     This 


EXPORTS  AND  PRODUCTS.         101 

lumber,  witli  very  little  expenditure  of  labor  and 
capital,  could  be  brought  down  the  streams  dur- 
ing their  rises  almost  any  month  in  the  year,  to 
the  principal  cities.  When  the  reader  is  made 
acquainted  with  the  stubborn  fact,  that  all  the 
lumber  used  on  the  North  side  of  the  island  ex- 
cept the  little  mahogany  tliat  is  sawed  there  and 
at  and  about  St.  Domingo  City,  is  carried  there 
at  great  cost  from  the  States,  and  sold  at  a  price 
fabulous  to  our  lumber  dealers  here,  he  will  mea- 
surably comprehend  the  undeveloped  resources 
of  Dominica  in  that  interest  alone.  Pine  lum- 
ber sells  at  Port  Platte  for  $60  per  thousand  feet. 
It  has  then  to  be  carried  back  to  Santiago,  Moco 
and  La  Vega  on  mules,  where  it  sells  for  $100 
per  thousand,  while  those  mountains  and  the 
banks  of  their  streams  stand  thickly  clothed  with 
it,  in  its  majestic  and  sublime  abundance !  There 
Is  but  one  saw-mill  on  the  Spanish  end  of  the  is- 
land near  St.  Domingo  City,  and  tl)at  not  now  in 
operation.  They  saw  by  hand  a  little  mahogany 
at  a  cost  of  80  cents  a  cut  10  feet  long,  and  when 
an  individual  wishes  to  build  a  house  at  Santiago, 
Moco,  La  Vega,  Cotuy  or  any  ol  the  interioi 
towns,  he  has  to  begin  to  collect  his  lumber  a 
year  before  hand ! 


102  DOMINICA. 

It  is  not  that  machinerj  cannot  be  trans- 
ported to  any  of  these  towns.  There  is  a  good 
harbor  and  landing  at  Monte  Christi,  and 
nearly  a  level  road  up  the  valley  to  Santia- 
go, and  good  roads  in  the  dry  seasons  for  heavy 
carriage  thence  to  the  other  interior  towns.  Nor 
is  it  because  there  is  no  market  there  for  the  lum- 
ber, nor  yet  because  the  inhabitants  of  these 
towns  lack  the  capital  necessary  to  start  and  com- 
plete such  an  enterprise,  for  many  of  them  are 
vastly  wealthy,  but  because  of  the  sheer  lack  of 
enterprize,  energy  and  skill  in  the  people.  They 
live  in  the  same  old  way,  selling  their  merchan- 
dize from  their  century-old  shops,  trafficking  in 
hides,  mahogany  cuts,  tobacco  and  wax,  and 
hoarding  their  doubloons  from  generation  to  gen- 
eration, without  ever  venturing  a  "pesos  "in 
any  useful  and  nesessary  enterprise  of  the  kind. 
A  house-builder  of  Santiago  recently  informed 
the  writer  that  a  year  ago  he  erected  a  frame 
and  brick  house  for  a  merchant  there,  90  feet 
long  by  40  wide,  two  stories  high,  with  porticos 
and  verandah  and  finished  inside  and  out  in  the 
ordinary  plain  style,  costing  him  $25,000  !  In 
consequence  of  this  scarcity  and  cost  of  lumber, 


EXPOKTS  AND  PKODUCTS.  lU3 

those  of  smaller  means  build  their  floors  of  brick 
and  flags  and  roof  tlieir  houses  with  the  same  ma- 
terial or  with  the  leaf  of  tne  palm  tree.  Besides 
the  pine,  there  is  the  oak,  the  fustic  and  satin 
woods,  compache  and  an  indefinite  variety  of 
others.  Some  of  the  hardest  and  most  durable 
vegetable  fibre  in  the  world  is  to  be  found  on 
the  island. 


SECTION  YIII. 

The  Fruits  and  Edibles. 

To  describe  all  the  fruits  and  edibles  of  Domi- 
nica would  encumber  this  work  and  carry  its 
volume  much  bejond  what  was  originally  de- 
signed. It  is  familiar  knowledge  to  the  reader 
that  the  fruits  and  edibles  of  the  tropics  far  tran- 
scend, both  in  variety,  quality  and  abundance 
those  of  the  temperate  zones.  But  nowhere  within 
the  trojiics,  is  this  fruit  and  succulent  bearing  ca- 
pacity found  in  greater  perfection  than  in  the  is- 
land of  St.  Domingo.  There  are  fruits  and  roots 
there  of  delicious  and  valuable  varieties  of  which 
few  of  the  North  ever  heard.  We  must  however, 
content  ourself  with  alluding  only  to  a  few  of  the 
more  important  and  valuable. 

The  Plantain  is  the  principal  bread  of  the  in- 
habitants, and  is  used  and  grown  in  all  parts  of 


FRUITS  AND  EDIBLES.  105 

the  island.  It  is  planted  from  the  root  or  shoot, 
grows  to  the  height  of  from  8  to  12  feet,  and 
matures  it>  fruit  in  nine  months  from  the  time 
of  tran?planting.  It  then  yields  the  year  round 
from  new  shoots  thrown  out,  and  produces  con- 
tinually for  fifteen  or  twenty  years  without  trans- 
planting. It  is  so  prolific,  that  one  acre  will 
abundantly  supply  a  large  family  with  bread. 
It  will  grow  without  any  cultivation  save  trans- 
planting, but  will  produce  more  abundantly  when 
cultivated.  This  fruit  grows  from  8  to  14  inches 
in  length  and  2  in  diameter,  and  in  bunches  as 
large  as  a  man  can  carry.  The  fruit  is  used 
when  green  as  we  use  green  apples  or  potatoes, 
and  is  prepared  in  various  ways,  but  chiefly  by 
boiling  and  baking.  "When  ripe  it  is  very  lusci- 
ous and  is  used  for  pies,  desert  and   puddings. 

The  Banana,  another  fruit  of  the  same  species 
and  resembling  it  in  appearance,  is  cultivated  in 
the  same  way  by  transplantation,  matures  in 
about  the  same  time  and  produces  through  the 
year  and  for  fifteen  or  twenty  years  without 
transplanting.  It  is  only  used  however  when 
ripe,  when  it  is  very  delicious,  nutrimental  and 
wholesome. 


106  DOMINICA, 

The  Mango  grows  on  a  beautiful  large  tree  in 
great  abundance  on  the  mountains  and  plains 
through  the  island,  producing  its  fruit  somewhat 
like  the  apple,  and  in  equal  abundance.  It  re- 
sembles our  peach,  but  is  much  larger  and  is  re- 
garded bj  the  inhabitants  as  the  most  delicious 
fruit  of  the  island.     It  produces  the  year  round. 

Tlie  Alligator  Pear  is  indigenous  and  grows  in 
great  profusion  throughout  the  island.  The  tree 
that  yields  it  resembles  our  pear  tree  as  does  al- 
so the  fruit  in  shape,  only  about  four  times  as 
large.  It  is  eaten  when  ripe  and  also  with  meats 
and  is  often  used  on  the  plantains  instead  oi 
butter,  and  produces  the  year  round. 

In  addition  to  these  might  be  mentioned  the 
Orange,  Lemon,  Lime,  Fig,  Pine-Apple,  Saf- 
fadilla,  Highmeat,  Mamma-Apple,  Sugar-Apple, 
Custard-Apple,  Cocoa-nut,  Sour-sop,  Plum,  Grape 
and  Guava,  all  of  which  grow,  some  of  them  in 
extensive  groves,  both  cultivated  and  wild 
throughout  the  island. 

Touching  the  edibles  the  most  important  is  the 
Yam,  of  which  there  are  several  varieties.  It  is 
abundant  throughout  the  island,  and  is  used  there 
instead  of  our  potato,  growing,  however,   much 


FRUITS  4lND  edibles.  107 

larger  and  sometimes  to  the  weight  of  50  lbs.  It 
is  cooked  miicli  as  onr  potatoe  is,  and  keeps 
sweet  several  days.  This  root  is  one  of  tiie  most 
valuable  as  food  to  the  inhabitants. 

The  Palm  is  also  a  valuable  product  of  the  is- 
land, growing  up  with  a  straight  trunk  from  20 
to  50  feet  high,  then  shading  out  its  broad  leaves 
all  around  like  a  vast  umbrella,  from  the  centre 
of  which  shoots  up  a  straight  stalk  which  bears 
the  fruit.  The  fruit  is  used  for  food  for  the  hogs 
and  cattle,  and  the  inside  of  the  soft  trunk  is 
cooked  like  our  cabbage  which  it  resembles. 

The  Saieet- Potatoe  is  a  native  of  the  island  and 
is  spontaneously  produced  in  prodigious  quanti- 
ties. It  grows  wild  in  the  woods  and  in  the  val- 
leys, to  the  weight  of  10  lbs.  It  is  not  liowever, 
as  extensively  used  as  the  \rain.  Besides  these, 
the  Carrot,  the  Beet,  the  Raddish  and  the  Onion 
grow  there  in  great  abundance  and  also  to  a  pro- 
digious size,  as  do  also  the  Melon,  the  Citron,  the 
Cantaloupe,  the  Pumpkin,  the  Cabbage  and  the 
Squash. 


SECTION    IX. 

The  Gold  Fields  of  Dominica. 

Since  the  discovery  of  the  island,  the  fact  ol 
its  being  a  gold-bearing  district  has  been  undis- 
puted. Almost  the  first  thing  with  which  Colum- 
bus was  presented  by  the  native  Chiefs  when  he 
landed  on  the  island,  was  their  rudely  made  trin- 
kets and  images  in  gold.  "When  asked  where  the 
gold  was  obtained,  they  pointed  inland  to  the 
mountains.  Under  their  direction,  search  was 
made  in  the  streams  and  mountains  with  but  lit 
tie  success  at  first,  because  they  expected,  as  al- 
most all  gold-seekers  at  first  do,  to  find  it  in  such 
abundance  that  it  would  require  little  or  no 
labor  to  gather  it,  but  subsequently  with  more 
success,  when  they  ascertained  better  the  nature 
of  its  deposits.  Specimens  of  the  gold  thus 
gathered  and  obtained  from    the  natives,  were 


THE  GOLD  FIELDS.  109 

carried  back  by  Columbus  to  Spain  on  his  return, 
with  the  most  rapturous  accounts  of  the  country 
and  its  auriferous  abundance.  Spanish  cupidity 
and  adventure  were  tlius  excited,  and  first  hun 
dreds  and  then  thousands  crossed  over,  as  well  to 
settle  in  the  new  Elysium,  as  to  enrich  them- 
selves by  the  gold. 

Some  little  idea  may  be  formed  of  this 
stampede  by  the  numbers  that  crowded  to 
California,  w^hen  its  gold  resources  and  abun- 
dance were  first  opened  up.  But  the  Span- 
ish adventurer  had  another  excitement  be- 
sides that  of  gold-hunting,  in  the  new  and  sur- 
passingly beautiful  country,  abounding  in  all 
that  could  charm  the  senses,  sate  the  appetites 
and  supply  every  material  want.  Still  further 
returns  of  gold,  and  further  accounts  of  the  coun- 
try fed  the  excitement,  and  brought  over  still 
other  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  to  live  in 
ease  and  affluence,  for  they  had  by  this  time  en- 
slaved the  native  races  and  compelled  them  to 
seek  and  gather  the  gold  in  the  streams  and  the 
mountains.  These  causes  alone  are  sufficient  to 
explain  why  the  island  was  so  soon  colonized  and 
settled  and  reached  such  a  degree  of  populous- 


110  DOMINICA. 

ness  and  prosperity,  long  before  the  Puritans 
landed  at  Plymouth,  before  Manhattan  Island 
was  settled  or  Jamestown  built.  But  unlike  the 
latter  colonies,  the  former  was  founded  m  rapa- 
city, avarice  and  bloodshed. 

Auriferous  science  was  very  little  understood 
at  that  time,  as  it  indeed  was  for  over  a  century 
afterwards.  They  were  ut'terly  ignorant  of  the 
many  and  varied  useful  and  skillful  appliances  we 
possess  now  in  the  mining  art,  and  knew  very  lit- 
tle about  the  source  and  nature  of  auriferous 
deposits.  The  writer  is  unable  to  find  in  any 
history  or  account  of  that  period,  and  the  min- 
ing interests  of  the  Colonj'-,  that  they  worked  the 
gold  from  the  quartz  or  even  traced  it  there, 
while  the  base  of  almost  all  the  mountains  of  St, 
Domingo  is  formed  of  sand-stone  and  gold-bear- 
ing quartz.  The  Spaniards  themselves  did  lit- 
tle or  no  work.  They  put  these  burdens  on  the 
inoffensive  race  they  found  there.  They  at  first 
taxed  each  native  a  "hawks-bell"  full  of  gold  each 
moon ;  then  two  "  hawks-bells,"  then  three,  until 
finally  they  compelled  them  to  work  exclusively 
in  seeking  and  gathering  gold. 

Some  of  the  accounts  describe  the  mode  bv  which 


THK  GOLD  FIELDS.  Ill 

these  poor  natives  gathered  full  their  "  hawks- 
bells."  Tliej  laid  smooth  flat  stones  in  slopino^  po- 
sitions in  the  brooks,  the  sand  washing  over  which 
left  the  golden  particles  deposited  below  and  be- 
neath :  they  dug  holes  in  the  streams  into  which 
the  gold  was  washed :  they  collected  it  in  their 
hands  and  in  shells  :  they  dived  into  the  deep  holes 
in  the  streams  and  scraped  up  the  sand,  and  after- 
wards washed  out  the  particles,  and  in  a  variety 
of  other  ways  collected  their  tax.  After  they 
failed  to  pay  their  tax  in  this  way,  mines  were 
opened  under  t4ie  direction  of  the  Spaniards  at 
the  bases  of  the  mountains,  and  they  dug  down 
to  the  bed  rock  and  collected  the  deposits  there, 
and  washed  them  out  in  the  nearest  brooks.  The 
writer  is  unable  to  find  that  they  worked  by 
"  flumes  "  or  "  long-toms,"  or  by  darning"  or  turn- 
ing the  streams,  although  there  is  some  mention 
made  of  their  dragging  or  dredging  the  deep 
holes  in  the  mountain  streams  for  nuggets.  They 
also  turned  up  the  soil  in  the  valleys  and  on  the 
plains  to  get  at  the  deposits  beneath.  The  traces 
of  these  mining  operations  are  there  yet,  and  it  is 
wonderful  the  prodigious  amount  of  labor  they 
performed. 


112  DOMINICA. 

In  some  of  the  mining  districts,  veins  of  gold 
were  discovered,  uncovered  and  followed  up  un- 
til they  penetrated  the  mountain  so  deeply,  that 
the  labor  was  too  immense  for  their  unscientific 
heads  and  unskillful  hands.  Many  of  these  long 
trenches  are  still  visible,  and  there  are  traces 
where  they  have  pursued  the  cleft  or  fissure  de- 
posits by  quarrying  in  the  sides  of  the  mountains. 
They  worked  these  natives  thus  nearly  a  whole 
century,  during  which  time  the  Colony  produced 
immense  revenues  to  the  mother  coiintry.  Mints 
and  Assay  offices,  were  established  at  St.  Domin- 
go City,  La  Yega  and  Azua,  and  about  five  mil- 
lion dollars  were  shipped  annually  to  Spain,  be- 
ing the  one-fifth  of  the  products  of  the  mines  re- 
served to  the  Spanish  Crown.  A  writer  however 
observes,  that  it  could  not  have  been  over  one- 
tenth,  as  vast  amounts  never  found  its  way  to  the 
registery  offices,  being  concealed  and  kept  back 
by  the  proprietors  to  such  an  extent,  as  to  neces- 
sitate a  Royal  decree  making  it  highly  penal  to 
render  false  returns.  When  the  natives  began  to 
die  out,  the  revenue  began  to  diminish,  and  the 
mining  interests  to  languish,  when  they  finally  fell 
into   comiaarative   neglect.     From  all  the  write.' 

/ 


THE  GOLD  FIELDS.  113 

can  gather,  be  is  satisfied  it  was  not  he  exhaus- 
tion of  the  mines  that  caused  this  decrease  and 
neglect,  but  the  gradual  extermination  of  the  na- 
tives and  their  final  fatal  mortality  caused  by 
emall-pox  and  yellow  fever. 

The  natives,  under  the  overseership  of  their  Span- 
ish taskmasters,  first  explored  the  beds  and  shores 
Li  the  brooks  and  streams  and  washed  and  gather- 
ed the  gold  thence,  long  before  they  betook 
themselves  to  turning  up  the  soil  in  their  search, 
and  before  working  in  the  mountains.  The  deposits 
of  unrecorded  ages,  washed  down  from  the  moun- 
tains and  worn  off  from  the  quartz,  had  settled  in 
those  innumerable  brooks  and  streams  as  well  as 
beneath  the  soil  when  the  valleys  and  plains  were 
in  course  of  formation.  The  early  writers  uni- 
formly describe  these  brooks  and  streams  as 
"  washing  down  sands  of  gold.''^  After  it  began 
in  time  to  grow  scarce  in  the  brooks  and  streams, 
then,  as  before  stated,  they  commenced  to  turn 
the  soil  at  the  base  of  the  mountains  and  in  the 
ancient  beds  or  places  where  the  streams  ran  in 
former  times.  Recent  explorations  there,  how- 
ever, attest  the  fact,  that  they  did  not  exhaust  the 
deep  holes  and  rocky  chasms  in  the  beds  of  the 

I 


114  DOMINICA. 

streams,  because  in  many  places  in  these  holes 
and  chasms,  especially  along  the  Ciboa  river, 
the  gold  is  yet  found  in  considerable  quantities, 
by  sinking  deeply  into  their  sandy  or  gravelly 
bottoms  and  bringing  up  the  deposits.  This  may 
however  have  been  the  accumulations  of  subse- 
quent ages.  There  are  no  indications  of  their  tun- 
nelling into  the  mountains  and  working  there 
the  veins  or  the  quartz,  except  as  before  ob- 
served. 

After  the  native  labor  had  failed,  attempts 
were  made  to  work  the  mines  by  negro  slaves, 
and  through  their  agency,  they  were  resuscitated 
and  worked  for  sometime  longer,  but  never  with 
the  same  results.  The  slave-revolts  in  the  French 
Colony  again  depleted  the  mines  of  this  labor, 
and  the  discovery  of  Mexico  and  Peru,  with  the 
alluring  accounts  of  their  wealth,  caused  a  stam- 
pede thither,  in  a  short  time  after  which  the  mines 
were  abandoned  altogether  and  have  not  since 
been  opened  or  worked. 

It  is  impossible  at  this  distant  date  to  fix  with 
any  degree  of  accuracy,  the  boundaries  of  the 
ancient  mining  districts  of  St.  Domingo.  The 
richest  appear  to  have  been  in  tlie  Ciboa  group 
of  mountains  in  the  central  range  and  a  little  to 


THE  GOLD  FIELDS.  115 

the  northward  of  the  centre  of  the  island,  although 
some  mine?  equally  rich  were  found  in  other  dis 
tricts.  The  Ciboa  mountains  are  tlie  loftiest, 
and  perhaps  this  may  explain  the  reason  why 
their  deposits,  by  washing  and  wearing  away, 
abounded  more  in  gold  than  some  others.  Other- 
wise it  is  difficult  to  conceive  why  other  moun- 
tains and  districts,  formed  in  the  same  general 
way  and  of  the  same  geological'  constitutenta 
were  not  equally  prolific  in  this  mineral.  Bat 
the  Ciboa  group  occupying  the  foreground  in  al- 
most all  the  descriptions  of  the  writers  on  the  sub- 
ject we  have  been  able  to  obtain,  we  will  begin 
with  that  district.  An  English  writer  about  the 
close  of  the  last  century,  observes  of  the  Ciboa 
region  that 

"  These  mountains  contain  besides  an  infinite 
number  of  mines  of  all  sorts.  Every  one  is  ac 
quainted  with  the  high  reputation  of  the  moun- 
tains of  Ciboa,  in  the  bowels  of  which  Spanish 
avarice  has  buried  so  many  thousand  Indians, 
condemned  t?o  toil  in  search  of  that  gold  which 
has  covered  the  earth  with  every  species  of 
crime." 

Again  he  remarks 


116  DOMINICA. 

"  One  thing  is  certain,  the  word   G'tboa  awak- 
ens the  remembrance  of  very  rich   mines,  cele- 
brated every  since  tlie  discovery  of  America,  by 
their  abundant  produce  and  the  purity  of  their 
gold.     Hence  were  dug  the  first  lumps  of  tliis 
metal  presented  by  Columbus  to  Ferdinand  and 
•Isabella,  who  were  then  far  from  suspecting  how 
many  tears  and  how  much  blood  this  gold  would 
cause  to  be  shod.     These  mines  are  generally  in 
that    part  of   the  group  lying  to    the  north    and 
near  a  river  called  by  some   the  Janico  and  by 
others  Ciboa.     During  the  first  years,  it  was  suf- 
ficient to  dig  there  to  draw  thence  immense  pro- 
fits."    *    *    *     *     "  The  neighborhood  of  Ciboa 
also  has   gold    mines    and   Valverde   says    'the 
mountains  dividing   the   site   of    Constance   are 
known   to  be  altogether  mines  so  abundant   in 
gold,  that   in  digging  the  earth  it  runs  in  sand 
and  grains    in    every    direction    of  the    \vaters.' 
This  is  not  the  only  metal  furnished  by  the  moun- 
tains of  Ciboa.     I  have  ah-eady  mentioned  other 
mines  which    are    found  in  the  prolongation  of 
these  mountains,  in  the  territory  of  Cotuy,  and 
in   this   the  Canton  of  Harabacoa  has  a   mine 
of  silver  which  was  worked  formerly." 


THK  GOLD  FIKLPS.  117 

In  speaking  of  the  territories  about  La  Yega 
and  Cotny,  into  which  the  "prolongations"  of 
the  Ciboa  group  penetrate,  the  writer  further 
remarks. 

"The  name  of  '  Mines'  was  first  given  to  it 
(Cotuy)  because  there  were  mines  in  its  territory 
and  many  gold  ones  were  working  at  the  time. 
'(1505).  But  from  the  year  1520  workmen  began 
to  be  wanted  here  as  at  the  mines  of  Bonnaven- 
tura.  In  the  mountains  of  Maymon  there  is  a 
very  abundant  copper  mine.  In  this  mine  there 
is  an  excellent  lapis  lazuli^  and  a  sort  of  chalk 
which  some  painters  think  preferable  to  Dole  for 
gilding.  Two  mines  of  load-stone  are  found  ad- 
joing  the  last  mentioned  one.  Not  far  from  this 
is  a  mountain  called  the  '  Emerald,'  because  it 
contains  of  tbat  precious  stone.  In  the  neighbor- 
hood there  is  also  pure  iron  of  the  very  best 
quality." 

"  Eight  years  after  it  was  founded  (  i.  e.  in 
1505)  it  was  already  a  city  of  importance.  Some- 
times during  the  year  there  were  two  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  crowns  minted  here.  This 
gold  was  part  of  the  products  of  the  mines  of  Ci- 
boa, at  a  time  when  metallurgy  was  in  no  great 


118  DOMINICA, 

perfection  and  consequently  when  tlie  loss  was 
excessive.  The  persons  concerned  in  tlie  opera- 
tion, hid  a  great  deal  of  the  gold  and  did  not 
count  that  in  grains  and  scales,  but  only  that  in 
lump." 

This  writer  in  describing  the  territory  above 
Santiago,  into  which  also  the  Ciboa  mountains 
penetrate,  observes  fnrther. 

"  The  territory  of  Santiago  is  very  fertile  in 
mines.  In  the  first  place  the  Green  river  has 
grains  of  gold  among  its  sands,  and  there  was  on 
one  side  of  this  river  a  mine  of  gold,  the  princi- 
pal vein  of  which  was  three  inches  in  circumfe- 
rence of  gold,  very  pure  and  unmixed  with  other 
matter.  It  was  closed  up  by  order  of  the  Presi- 
dent, because  the  Alcade  of  La  Vega  wanted  to 
seize  upon  the  mines  that  were  working  along 
tlie  Green  river.  Much  superficial  gold  was  for- 
merly collected  on  the  bights  near  this  river 
also,  and  which  came  from  very  abundant  mines 
never  yet  opened.  Originally  the  town  of  Santi- 
ago was  peopled  almost  altogether  with  gold- 
smiths, which  circnmstauce  alone  is  sufficient  to 
show  the  abundance  of  the  mines." 

"  The  sand  of  the  Yaque  is  also  mixed  with 


THE  GOLD  FIKLDS.  119 

gold,  and  according  to  Mr.  Buttet,  there  was 
found  in  1708  a  lump  of  nine  ounces.  Almost 
all  the  rivers  that  fall  in  from,  both  banks  of  the 
Yaque,  wash  down  gold  from  the  mountains, 
which  are  as  yet  hardly  hnown.  Twelve  leagues 
to  the  south  of  Santiago  at  Bishops-stream  and 
that  of  the  stones,  there  are  many  mines  of  silver. 
To  the  West,  in  the  counties  called  the  Tanci,  the 
abundance  of  such  mines  caused  these  cantons 
to  be  looked  upon  as  a  second  Potosi.  Lastly  at 
Yasica,  twelve  leagues  from  Santiago,  on  the 
bank  of  the  river,  there  is  a  little  hillock  abound- 
ing in  silver.  There  is  copper  also  in  the  terri- 
tory of  Santiago,  and  mercury  at  the  head  of  the 
river  Yaque." 

"  The  canton  of  Port-de-Platte  greatly  abounds 
in  mines  of  gold,  silver  and  copper.  There  are 
also  mines  of  plaster." 

But  the  riches  of  the  mines  opened  in  the 
southern  and  western  portion  of  the  island  were, 
if  at  all,  surpassed  only  by  those  of  the  Ciboa  re- 
gion. The  same  writer  in  speaking  of  the  region 
around  St.  Thomas  and  San  Juan-de-la-Maguana 
to  the  South-West  of  the  Ciboa  country  re- 
marks. 


120  DOMINICA. 

"The  country  we  are  at  present  describing  has 
in  divers  places  mines  of  different  sorts.  In  the 
district  of  Gnaba  there  are  some  very  abundant : 
among  others  the  Gilded  Hill,  which  Valverde 
says  may  be  called  the  '  Golden  Hill.'  Many 
persons  he  adds,  have  there  enriched  themselves 
clandestinely  by  the  labor  of  their  own  hands 
and  those  of  a  single  negro ;  for,  fearing  to  take 
more  assistance  for  fear  of  a  discovery,  they  ac- 
quired fortunes  without  the  necessary  talents  or 
knowledge — a  strong  proof  of  the  abundance  of 
the  metal." 

So  again  in  speaking  of  the  territories  of  Azua 
and  Manuel  on  tl\e  South  side  of  the  island  he 
says : 

"  Azua  contains  also  many  gold  mines  which 
were  formerly  worked,  but  are  long  since  aban- 
doned." 

"  In  the  region  above  Manuel  everything  seems 
to  bespeak  mines  of  gold,  and  gold  sand  is  seen 
in  the  waters  of  the  streams." 

"  Between  the  rivers  Nizoa  and  Jayna  (on  the 
South  side  of  the  island.  West  of  St.  Domingo 
City)  lies  an  extensive  and  fertile  plain,  which 
was  originally  a  most  abundant  scource  of  wealth 


THE  GOLD  FIELDS.  121 

to  the  colonies.  The  quantity  of  gold  that  was 
dug  from  its  cavities,  with  its  sugar,  cocoa  and 
indigo,  paid  duties  to  a  greater  amount  than  that 
now  paid  by  all  the  Spanish  part  of  the  island 
put  together.  On  the  banks  of  the  Jajna  near 
Guajabel  there  is  a  rich  silver  mine,  which  they 
had  begun  to  work,  but  which  was  given  up  in 
consequence  of  eighteen  negroes  having  been 
killed  by  the  falling  in  of  the  earth.  There  is 
another  mine  of  the  same  metal  near  St.  Michael. 
It  was  on  the  river  Jayua  near  Bonnaventura  that 
was  found  the  famous  lump  of  gold,  spoken  of  by 
the  Spanish  writers,  and  especially  Oviedo,  who 
says  that  it  weighed  three  thousand  six  hundred 
Spanish  dollars  ;  without  mentioning  many  others 
which  were  also  of  a  remarkable  size.  There 
were  annually  run  at  Ponnaventura  as  many  as 
two  hundred  and  thirty  thousand  dollars. 

"A  number  of  poor  inhabitants  there,  now  find 
employment  in  washing  gold,  the  standard  of 
which  is  about  twenty-three  carets  and  a  half. 
Valverde  even  says  on  this  subject  that  in  1764, 
it  was  asked  at  the  central-office  whence  came 
the  gold  of  the  buckles  that  were  brought  thither 
to  be  weighed,  and  that  it  was  asserted  that  none 


122  DOMINICA.. 

had  ever  been  seen  so  fine.  This  gold  he  adds  is 
not  found  on  the  surface,  but  is  borne  along  by 
the  water  in  grains  or  lumps  in  detaching  it  from 
tbe  great  mass  which  was  first  worked,  and  the 
excavations  of  which  are  yet  visible  " 

Without  multiplying  extracts  on  the  subject 
from  this  and  otlier  writers  who  have  treated  of 
it,  we  will  conclude  with  the  following 

"  The  Indmns  now  became  the  victims  of  the 
most  atrocious  avarice,  fled  to  the  continent  or 
some  propitious  island  ;  others  died  of  the  small- 
pox, a  distemper  unknown  among  them  since  the 
discovery,  and  which  destroyed  more  than  three 
hundred  thousand  in  a  very  little  time.      Ac 
customed  to  an  easy,  free  and  independent  life, 
and  being  all  at  once  reduced  to  servitude,  and 
that  of  the  most  rigorous  and  laborious  sort,  many 
other  disorders,  equally   destructive   made  their 
appearance  among  them,  and  completed  the  ex- 
tirpation of  this  race  of  men,  whose  only  crime 
was  possessing  a  land,  the  bowels  of  which  con- 
tained  treasures  that  they  alone   had  the  happi- 
ness to  despise  !      With  the  extinction  of  the  Vi- 
dians came  that   of  the  products  of  the  7nines  / 
the  fifth  of  which  had  yielded  to  the  public  treas- 
ure as  much  as  six  millions  annually. ^^ 


TIIR  GOLD  FIELDS.  123 

If  we  carefully  examine  all  the  histories  now- 
extant  and  accessible  of  the  colony  dnring  its  pros- 
perous mining  years,  and  attentively  consider 
the  geological  and  topographical  characteristics 
of  the  island,  we  cannot  fail  to  be  duly  impressed 
with  the  fact,  that  the  island  of  St.  Domingo  is 
one  immense  gold  field  from  one  extremity  to  the 
other.  Tliere  is  scarcely  a  district  of  any  extent 
or  a  mountain  of  any  magnitude  where  gold  has 
not  been  and  is  not  now  found,  and  so  far  from 
its  auriferous  resources  having  been  exhausted  by 
the  early  Spaniards,  they  scarcely  began  to  be 
developed.  It  is  somewhat  difficult  to  account 
for  the  manner  in  which  the  idea  of  their  exhaus- 
tion got  current  to  such  a  degree  with  modern 
civilized  Europe  and  America.  None  of  the  ac- 
counts that  the  writer  has  been  enabled  to  con- 
sult mention  their  exhaustion,  but  uniformly 
ascribe  their  abandonment  to  the  extinction  of  the 
native  labor,  the  subsequent  failure  to  work  them 
by  negro  slaves,  the  stampede  of  the  population 
to  new  Eldorados,  the  incessant  and  insensate  pil- 
lages and  spoliations  carried  on  between  the 
Spanish  and  French  colonists,  incited  and  embit- 
tered   by    unmitigated    national    hatred,  and  the 


124  DOMINICA. 

murderous  civil  strifes  and  commotions  by  which 
they  were  periodically  rent, 

"We  may  add  to  these  causes,  the  prevailing  ig- 
norance in  regard  to  mineralogical  science,  the 
nature  and  scource  of  auriferous  deposits,  and  the 
grossly  unscientific  manner  in  which  their  min- 
ing operations  were  carried  on.  They  were  un- 
acquainted with  all  the  ingenious  devices  and 
admirable  modern  appliances  for  mining,  wash- 
ing and  collecting  the  gold,  had  no  adequate  ma- 
chinery like  the  steam  engine  adapted  to  the 
work,  but  toiled  on  without  any  systematic  order 
in  their  operations.  A  hundred  thousand  igno- 
rant, feeble  and  docile  Indians,  laboring  under 
these  disadvantages,  were  incapable  of  accomp- 
lishing as  much  as  a  well  organized  company  of' 
one  hundred  and  fifty  or  two  hundred  men,  aid- 
ed by  the  skill  and  all  the  modern  labor-saving 
devices  would  now  be.  As  might  be  expected,  and 
as  the  author  from  whom  we  have  above  extract- 
ed observes,  the  loss  in  their  raining  operations 
"was  excessive."  The  Californian  miner  going 
over  the  same  "  diggings  "  to-day,  would  make 
them  "  pay  "  perhaps  equally  as  well  as  they  ori- 
ginally paid  his  awkward  predecessor. 


THE  GOLP  FIKLDS.  125 

Concerning  the  present  aspect  of  the  gold  fields 
of  Dominica,  and  the  demonstrative  evidences  of 
the  existence  of  gold  there,  our  information  is  de- 
rived from  much  personal  conversation  with  gen- 
tlemen now  and  long  residents  of  the  island,  as  well 
as  from  others  who  have  recently  visited  it,  and 
from  the  voluminous  correspondence  of  some  citi- 
zens of  New  York,  there  at  present,  engaged  in 
explorations.  From  these  scources  we  gather  the 
following  summary  of  facts. 

The  gold  is  still  found  in  the  Ciboa  regions  as 
of  old.  In  prospecting  up  the  Ciboa  river  and 
its  tributaries,  the  "  colour "  was  everywhere 
found,  as  it  was  also  in  their  beds  and  rocky 
crevices  and  deep  holes.  The  quantity  thus  tak- 
en out  in 2)rospecting,  and  working  only  with  the 
prospecting  implements,  amounted  sometimes  to 
two  dollars  per  hand  per  day.  Some  deep  holes 
made  by  the  current  washing  over  shoals  and 
rocks  were  found,  the  deposits  of  which,  perhaps 
undisturbed  for  ages,  yielded  palpable  evidences 
of  the  mineral,  when  tested  by  putting  down  a 
pole  split  at  the  end  or  with  a  sperm  candle  in- 
serted, and  bringing  up  the  adhering  sand.  The 
Spanish  and  Creole  women  are  in  the  habit  of  ob- 


126  DOMINICA. 

taining  the  gold  from  tliese  holes  in  the  dry  sea- 
son, by  a  very  rude  and  singular  device.  They 
plunge  down,  their  boys  holding  them  by  their 
heels  while  they  grab  up  and  clutch  the  sand  at 
the  bottom.  These  women  are  really  the  only 
native  miners  in  the  country  now.  After  the  fre- 
quent and  heavy  rains  they  pass  along  the  brooks 
and  streams,  and  gather  the  gold  from  the  crevi- 
ces in  their  rocky  beds,  and  from  below  the 
stones  where  it  collects,  and  afterwards  wash  it 
out  in  wooden  bowls.  They  also  follow  up  the 
mountain  rivulets  and  collect  it  where  the  rains 
newly  wash  the  surface,  and  pick  it  from  the 
rocky  and  abrupt  sides  of  the  streams.  Tliere  is 
scarcely  one  of  them  to  be  fonnd  in  this  region, 
who  has  not  a  number  of  specimens  out  of  which 
rude  ornaments  are  made,  which  she  wears  on 
her  person.  They  frequently  pick  np  nuggets  of 
a  considerable  size. 

Some  years  ago  a  Friar  at  savannah  Eglesia, 
about  twenty  miles  from  Santiago,  discovered  a 
rich  deposit  in  the  mountains  near  the  head  of 
the  valley,  whence  he  secretly  took  a  large  for- 
tune. Marking  the  place,  he  returned  to  Spain 
to  enjoy  his  wealth,  where  he  afterwards  wrote 


THK  GOLD  FIELDS.  127 

A.ivi  sent  out  a  description  of  the  locality.  Search 
was  then  made,  as  it  has  been  several  times  since 
but  without  success.  At  the  rocky  bases  of  the 
Ciboa  mountains  and  in  the  streams  that  drain 
tlieni,  quartz  rich  in  the  inineral  and  often  con- 
taining large  specimens  of  it,  are  frequently  pick- 
ed up  or  knocked  off  from  the  projecting  rocks. 
The  gold  is  also  found  in  the  clay  banks  on  some 
of  the  streams  and  at  the  base  of  the  mountains, 
particularly  in  a  valley  and  at  the  base  of  a  range 
of  mountains  some  eighteen  or  twenty  miles  East 
of  La  Yega,  Here  an  earthen  bowl  manufactur- 
ed of  this  clay  was  exhibited  by  a  Curate,  and 
which  was  thickly  impregnated  with  gold  parti-- 
cles  shining  in  its  material.  But  the  gentlemen 
to  whom  it  was  exhibited  being  then  on  a  hasty 
visit  to  a  different  place  could  not  visit  the  local- 
ity whence  the  material  was  taken. 

Near  the  village  of  Tabarras  on  the  Yaque, 
forty  miles  South-West  of  Santiago,  extensive 
gold  fields  are  found.  There  is  some  evidence  of 
their  being  worked  by  the  early  Spaniards.  The 
gold  is  found  in  the  bed  of  the  river,  in  the  small 
streams  and  in  the  soil  whereever  it  is  disturbed. 
The  native  inhabitants  obtain  it  in  considerable 


128  POMINICA. 

quantities  without  much  exertion,  and  bring  it  to 
Santiago  for  sale  A  gentleman  resident  in  San- 
tiago relates,  that  he  has  seen  nuggets  weighing 
an  ounce  brought  thither  from  that  region,  and 
that  all  the  jewelry  manufactured  at  Santiago  ia 
made  of  this  native  gold.  Further  down  on  the 
western  end  of  the  Ciboa  range,  about  70  miles 
West  of  Santiago,  gold  in  equal  quantities  is  found 
and  brought  to  Santiago.  On  the  South  side  of 
the  same  range,  where  there  is  scarcely  any  pop- 
ulation, the  gold  exists  in  equal  abundance.  But 
little  however  is  brought  thence,  as  the  region 
is  comparatively  a  wilderness.  It  is  doubtful 
wliether  even  the  gold  in  this  district  was  worked 
by  the  early  Spaniards  ;  at  least  the  same  indica- 
tions are  not  found. 

It  is  a  fact  notorious  throughout  these  gold 
bearing  regions,  that  the  Priests  and  Friars  scat- 
ered  throughout  the  country  and  in  the  little 
towns  and  country  places,  collect  the  gold  gather- 
ed by  the  natives,  and  in  this  way  amass  fortunes 
after  which  many  of  them  retire  to  Spain  and 
other  countries.  Hence,  when  strangers  visit  the 
different  gold  producing  districts,  they  are  accus- 
tomed  to  hunt  up  the  Priest,  always  the  most 


THE  GOLD  FIELDS.  129 

important  and  influential  personage  of  the  place, 
to  obtain  information  from  him  and  see  the  speci- 
mens in  his  collection.  Thej  are  very  hospitable 
and  communicative  and  neglect  nothing  to  ren- 
der their  guests'  visits  agreeable  and  instructive. 
No  trace  of  that  stolid  bigotry  which  often  de- 
forms the  clerical  office  in  other  countries  is  found 
amongst  them. 

The  project  of  damming  or  fluming  the  Magna 
river  and  some  of  its  tributaries  has  already  been 
agitated  by  some  gentlemen  from  the  States,  and 
to  that  end  preparations  and  explorations  have 
been  made.  From  recent  information  from  the 
island  we  are  advised,  that  the  undertaking  is 
progressing.  They  labor  under  great  disadvan- 
tages from  the  lack  of  a  population  in  the  imme- 
diate neighborhood,  and  from  the  difficulty  of  ob- 
taining the  requisite  labor,  that  of  the  native  in- 
habitants not  being  efficient  or  reliable.  The 
mineral  resources  of  the  island  can  only  be  ade- 
quately developed  along  with  its  agricultui-al  and 
commercial  interests.  So  true  is  this,  that  no 
considerable  and  permanent  progress  can  ever  be 
made  in  the  former  without  the  latter.  What 
the  country    wants   to  develop    and  bring  into 


130  DOMINICA. 

market  all  its  superabundant  scources  of  wealth, 
is  a  thrifty  and  industrious  population.  The  at- 
tempt to  monopolize  any  of  its  resources,  eithf  r 
by  cautiously  concealing  them  from  the  world 
for  selfish  purposes,  or  by  isolated  and  selfish  ef- 
forts, is  manifestly  suicidal  and  short  sighted. 
Thoroughly  impressed  with  this  conviction,  the 
writer  has  undertaken  in  these  pages  to  unfold 
and  throw  open  to  his  fellow-citizens  all  the  infor- 
mation he  is  possessed  of  on  the  subject. 


SECTION  X. 

Conclusive  Summary. 

In  reviewing  the  foregoing  pages  preparatory 
to  banding  them  to  the  printer,  the  writer  is  re- 
minded of  several  other  matters  germain  to  the 
subjects  discussed  in  this  little  volume,  and  to 
which  it  is  proper  he  should  advert.  In  perusing 
these  pages  raanj  inquiries  will  undoubtedly  sug- 
gest themselves  to  the  reader,  which  now  cither 
escape  the  writer's  attention,  or  of  which  it  is 
impossible  for  him  within  the  limits  assigned  to 
satisfactorily  treat.  All  he  can  reasonably  hope 
to  do,  is  to  give  the  interested  inquirer  some  gen- 
eral notion  of  the  many  rich  resources  of  Domi- 
nica and  beget  in  him  a  sincere  desire  to  profit 
by  them,  to  the  end  that  those  resources  should 
not  be  hereafter,  as  they    have   been  tor  ages 


132  roMiNicA. 

heretofore,  given  over  to  desolation  and  waste. 
The  population  of  Dominica  numbering  now 
only  about  120,000,  is  made  up  of  Spaniards? 
Spanish  Creoles  and  some  Africans  and  people  of 
color,  by  far  the  largest  number  of  which  reside 
in  the  cities  and  towns  and  their  vicinities.  The 
country  is  very  sparsely  peopled,  large  and  fertile 
districts  possessing  scarcely  a  single  inhabitant. 
The  district  of  country  known  as  the  Ciboa  or 
Northern  portion  of  the  island  from  Monte  Christi 
to  Samana,  is  the  most  thickly  settled.  Almost 
all  the  wealth,  intelligence  and  influence  centre 
in  the  cities  and  towns.  The  few  country  people 
properly  so  called,  although  habitually  honest, 
liospitable  and  sincere,  are  poor,  uneducated  and 
inoffensive.  In  the  cities  and  towns  we  find 
'Tiany  highly  educated,  opulent  and  refined  fami- 
lies. The  mass  of  the  population  wholly  lack 
that  thrift  and  industry  necessary  to  their  own 
material  well-being,  and  the  redemption  of  their 
country  from  the  desolation  into  which  it  has  fal- 
len. They  are  not  progressive,  but  from  year  to 
year  live  on  precisely  as  the  generations  before 
them  lived,  adopting  no  improvements  in  their 
mode  of  life — in  new  systems  of  industrial,  do 


CONCLUSIVE    SUMMAET.  133 

mestic  or  social  economy.     TJieir' manners  never 
change  from  generation  to  generation.     Families 
are  hereditarily  merchants,  traders,  mechanics  or 
grazers.     If  their  door-step  rots  down  or  the  floods 
carry  away  their  crossings,  they  rebuild  them,  if 
at  all,  precisely  as  they  were  before — not  an  inch 
higher  or  lower,  broader  or  narrower.    The  roads 
are  the  same  they  were  three  hundred  years  ago, 
changed  here  and   there  however,  by  the  chang- 
ing of  the  streams  and  the  encroachment  of  the 
vegetation.     They  preserve  the  fashions  of  their 
Spanish  ancestors  of  past  centuries.    For  instance, 
in  the  days  of  the  colony  it  was  the  custom  to 
bear  arms  on  the  person  and  so  arms  they  still 
bear.     No  one  thinks  of  going  even  a  short  jour- 
ney without  some  sort  of  arras,  such  as  a  sword, 
gun   or  horse-pistol,  even   should   the   sword  be 
pointless  and  the  gun  or  pistol  lockless  and  rusty. 
They  dress  cleanly  but  still  in  the  ancient  style. 
They   are  uniformly  polite,  courteous  and  affa- 
ble, even  the  country  people  and  peasantry  retain- 
ing all  the  civilities  and  social  amenities  of  their 
refined    and    urbane    Spanish    ancestors.      But 
nevertheless  they  are  emphatically  a  stereotyped 
people. 


134  DOMINICA, 

Although  uniformly  honest,  hospitable  and  sin- 
cere, they  are  notwithstanding  exceedingly 
shrewd  and  sharp  at  a  bargain,  and  will  entertain 
you  without  charge  at  their  boards  a  month,  be- 
fore they  will  give  in  a  shilling  in  a  trade.  They 
are  a  frank,  outspoken  and  open-hearted  people, 
and  are  captivated  with  those  virtues  in  strangers. 
To  attempt  in  any  manner  to  deceive  or  circum- 
vent them,  meets  with  their  unqualified  and  uni- 
versal condemnation.  A  belief  extensively  pre- 
vails that  they  are  individually  and  nationally 
jealous  and  suspicious  of  strangers,  that  they  are 
fall  of  duplicity  and  deceit,  and  that  all  inter- 
course and  negociations  with  them  to  succeed 
have  to  be  carried  on  by  means  of  a  subtle,  over- 
reaching or  covert  diplomacy.  That  they  must 
be  taken  off  their  guard  and  deceived  and  mis- 
led into  measures  before  they  will  accord.  But 
this  is  a  gross  libel  upon  their  individual  and 
national  names.  They  like  nothing  better  than 
frankness  and  open  and  fair-dealing.  Having 
little  or  no  intercourse  with  the  great  world  outside, 
seeing  and  meeting  with  few  strangers,  they  are 
naturally  curious,  especially  in  the  interior  towns, 
when  a  stranger  arrives  among  them.  Upon  the 
happening  of  such  an  event,  it  is  customary  and 


CONCLUSIVE   SUMMARY.  135 

in  fact  even  ref[uired,  that  the  visitor  should  forth- 
with search  out  the  chief  personage  ol  tlie  place 
and  the  Government  officials,  and  franklj  make 
known  who  he  is,  where  he  is  from,  where  he  is 
going  and  what  his  business  is.  This  mark  of 
confidence  and  respect  never  fails  to  ensure  him 
their  utmost  hospitality,  assistance  and  good-will. 
Every  one  instantly  becomes  satisfied,  and  is  anx- 
ious to  see  him,  make  his  acquaintance  and  fur- 
nish him  all  the  information  he  can.  They  will 
then  make  every  sacrifice  for  his  sake,  vieing 
with  one  another  to  make  his  visit  interesting  and 
agreeable.  They  are  universally  favoi-able  to  the 
sojourn  and  settlement  of  persons  from  the  States 
amongst  them. 

The  prevailing  religion  is  the  E.oman  Catholic, 
although  some  Methodist  Missions  and  Churches 
are  there  and  in  St.  Domingcr  City  there  are  some 
other  Protestant  Churches.  The  Priesthood  of 
Dominica  forms  a  very  large  and  influential  class. 
It  is  generally  intelligent  and  educated  and 
very  hospitable  towards  and  communicative  with 
strangers.  Perhaps  more  than  any  other  Catho- 
lic country,  Dominica  abounds  in  feast  and  fast 
and  other  holy-days.     The  people  are  strict  in  the 


136  DOMINICA. 

observance  of  these  days,  and  rarely  fail  to  at- 
tend the  church  to  say  mass  and  chant  Te-Deams. 
We  may  also  add  to  the  religions  festivals  and 
holy-days,  a  great  number  of  civic  observances 
and  jubilees,  which  they  observe  with  equal  fidel- 
ity. The  projectors  of  the  enterprize  before 
mentioned  found  this  no  inconsiderable  objection 
to  the  employment  of  the  native  labor.  Their  re- 
ligious and  patriotic  zeal  however,  is  not  by  any 
means  of  an  indurated,  bigoted  or  evangelizing 
charater.  The}'^  are  tolerant  and  liberal,  observ- 
ing their  festivities  and  holy-days  as  much  be- 
cause it  comports  with  their  indolent  and  easy 
habits,  as  from  civic  and  religious  sentiments. 

There  are  four  nev/spapers  published  in  Span- 
ish in  Dominica,  two  at  Santiago,  and  two  includ- 
ing the  Government  Organ  at  St.  Domingo  City, 
rhey  have  some  private  schools  and  academies 
n  the  towns  and  cities,  attended  by  the  children 
)f  the  wealthier  families,  but  the  cost  of  tuition 
3  enormously  high.  Some  of  the  wealthier  peo- 
ple send  their  sons  and  daughters  to  France,  Eng- 
land and  other  countries  to  be  educated.  Al- 
though some  of  the  more  educated  and  opulent 
possess  tolerably  good  libraries,  yet  their  litera- 


CONCLUSIVE    SUMMARY.  13T 

:ure  is  of  the  most  meagre,  old-fashioned  and  ob- 
solete kind. 

Their  carriage  and  travel  between  the  towns 
and  sea-ports  are  carried  on  hy  means  of  pack- 
'lorses  and  cargo  mnles,  over  the  roads  in  the 
valleys  along  the  streams  and  trails  leading  over 
and  along  the  ridges  and  up  and  down  the  precip- 
itous bights.  The  mules  being  very  sure-footed 
cautious  and  practiced,  and  bearing  enormously 
heavy  burdens,  pass  over  these  bights  in  com- 
parative safety.  There  are  some  wheeled  carri- 
ages drawn  by  oxen  over  the  roads  in  the  val- 
leys, which  are  generally  level  and  in  the  dry 
seasons  good.  There  are  two  brigs  now  running 
regularly  from  New  York  City  to  Port  Platte, 
and  a  number  of  other  brigs  and  schooners  trad- 
ing there  occasionally,  the  fare  on  which  for  a 
single  passenger  ranges  from  twenty-five  to  forty 
dollars.  The  passage  for  a  sailing  vessel  is  from 
ten  to  twenty  days. 

The  question  has  been  often  asked  the  writer 
why,  if  the  country  so  abounds  in  mineral  wealth 
do  the  people  not  mine  and  collect  it  themselves? 
To  which  he  has  invariably  replied  by  adverting 
to  the  character  and  habits  of  the  people.     Not 


138  DOMINICA. 

the  Lest  promises  of  the  most  prhicely  opulence 
will  stimulate  their  energies  beyond  the  imme- 
morially  beaten  track  of  their  fore-fathers.  They 
are  averse  to  labor,  and  seek  to  gain  their  liveli- 
hood in  as  easy  a  way  and  with  as  little  outlay  of 
industry  and  toil  as  possible,  and  as  the  richness 
of  the  soil  and  the  spontaneous  products  of  the 
climate  enable  them.  They  vegetate  in  an  incur- 
able apathy.  No  allurements  of  wealth  will 
arouse  them  from  their  indolence  and  lethargy. 
They  vt^ill  sit  by,  smoke  their  pipes  or  cigarettas, 
and  look  on  without  covetousness  and  with  supine 
indifference  while  the  man  of  industry  and  ap- 
lication  mines  the  gold  or  cultivates  the  soil,  en- 
riching himself  at  every  stroke  ;  and  what  is  an- 
omalous, they  are  pleased  and  excited  upon  wit- 
nessing any  enterprizeof  the  kind  going  forward. 
It  has  been  objected  that  the  climate  is  dissolv- 
ing and  enervating  to  northern  constitutions,  and 
that  under  its  influence  the  northern  races  in  a 
few  years  would  lapse  into  the  sluggish  indolence 
and  drowsy  apathy  peculiar  to  the  people  who 
inhabit  those  tropical  regions.  However  this 
may  be  the  case  with  other  countries,  it  does  not 
properly  apply  to  St.  Domingo,  where  the  air  is 
pure  and  invigorating,  the  country  mountainous 


CONCLUSIVE   SUMMARY.  139 

aud  abrupt,  and  the  climate  healthy  and  salubri- 
ous. Besides,  the  writer  is  not  informed  by  his- 
tory or  otherwise,  that  the  energies  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  race  has  ever  yet  succumbed  to  the  efiem- 
inating  influences  of  climate.  The  climate  of 
New  Orleans,  far  more  sultry  and  dissolving  than 
that  of  St.  Domingo,  has  never  yet  depressed  the 
energies  and  stifled  the  industry  of  our  people 
there.  After  all,  it  is  the  race  and  not  the  clim- 
ate upon  which  this  charge  should  be  made.  Un- 
der an  equitable  civ^il  and  political  rule,  even 
the  Italian  would  disclose  an  energy  unsurpassed 
by  that  of  his  race  centuries  ago. 

Again  it  has  been  objected,  that  the  country  is 
redolent  with  crocodiles,  scorpions,  centipedes, 
lizards,  gnats,  mosquitoes,  fleas  and  other  nox- 
ious insects  ;  an  objection  about  equal  in  magni- 
tude to  that  of  the  Irish  peasant,  who  fears  to 
emigrate  to  America  on  account  of  the  snakes 
here  !  A  few  harmless  crocodiles  are  to  be  found 
at  the  mouths  of  the  principal  rivers;  a  few  in- 
noxious scorpions  and  centipedes,  which  the  na- 
tive' children  are  not  afraid  to  crush  with  their 
fet^t ;  some  innocent,  good-natured  lizards  ;  gnats 
apd  mosquitoes  are  found  in  abundance  on  the 


14:0  DOMINICA. 

lowlands  and  niarsliy  coasts,  swarming  in  the 
mangroves  ;  fleas  abound.  The  winged  insects  of 
a  troublesome  nature  are  however,  periodically 
destroyed  and  carried  off  by  the  winds  and  rains 
which  prevent  their  excessive  multiplication. 

Should  these  brief  pages  excite  an  interest  in 
the  mind  of  the  American  public,  sufiicient  to  in- 
duce individuals  and  companies  to  resort  thither, 
either  for  business  or  to  reside,  all  insubordination 
to  the  authorities,  laws  and  customs  of  the  Dom- 
inican Republic  should  be  indignantly  and  persis- 
tently repressed.  A  strict  observance  of  their 
civil  and  international  codes  and  polities  will 
insure  the  foreign  resident  not  only  every  pro- 
tection for  his  person  and  property,  but  every  ad- 
vantage the  native  citizen  possesses.  He  wull  be 
hospitably  treated  by  both  government  and  peo- 
ple, and  every  assistance  afforded  him  in  effectu- 
ating his  peaceable  purposes.  Insurbordination 
to  their  civil  rule,  disregard  of  their  customs  and 
habits  of  social  order,  and  contempt  for  their  re- 
ligious and  social  prejudices,  will  as  surely  arouse 
the  belligerent  spirit  of  a  people,  otherwise  free, 
frank  and  friendly,  as  the  organized  aggression  of 
their  domain  by  banditti  incited  by  the  lust  of 


CONCLUSIVE   SUMMARY.  141 

empire  and  the  love  of  plunder,  and  enforced  by 
bloodshed  and  butchery. 

The  necessity  that  the  Republic  has  been  under 
for  so  many  years  of  maintaining  a  little  army  and 
navy  to  repel  the  Haytians  should  they  attempt 
to  carry  out  their  threats,  togetiier  with  the  re- 
peated civil  troubles  among  the  rulers,  have  sunk 
the  state  deeply  in  debt,  to  pay  the  interest  on 
which  and  maintain  their  credit  as  far  as  possible 
and  meet  the  current  expenses  of  their  adminis- 
tration, heavy  import  and  export  duties  (  their 
only  mode  of  raising  a  revenue)  are  necessarily 
imposed.  This  causes  every  article  of  provision 
such  as  flour,  beef,  pork,  hams,  salt-iish,  &c.,  im- 
ported from  the  States,  to  retail  at  a  very  high 
price  compared  with  their  cost  here  ;  the  more  so 
as  the  consumption,  on  account  of  the  paucity  of 
the  population,  is  limited.  No  duties  are  how- 
ever imposed  on  articles  imported  for  one's  own 
use  or  not  to  sell  again.  Those  resorting  thither 
should  therefore  provide  and  carry  with  them 
supplies  sufficient  to  last  them,  until  they  can  be- 
gin to  realize  from  their  own  labor.  Was  there 
a  sufficient  population  there,  and  of  course  an 
aiigmented  consumption  of  these  imports,  the  du- 


142  DOMINICA.. 

ties  no  doubt  would  be  decreased  by  timely  leg* 
islation,  and  adjusted  proportionately  to  the  in- 
creased imports  and  exports.  Machinery  and 
all  agricultural  implements  and  workmen's  and 
mechanic's  tools,  are  free  of  duty. 

The  writer  regrets  his  inability  to  introduce  in- 
to these  pages  a  trajislated  copy  of  the  Fundamen- 
tal Law  of  Dominica  adopted  in  1844,  as  he  lias 
unfortunately  lost  or  mislaid  the  pamphlet  contain- 
ing it  in  Spanish,  with  which  a  resident  of  the  is- 
land had  kindly  furnished  him.  The  chief  fea- 
tures of  it  are  however  given  from  memory,  in 
the  section  containing  a  brief  "  History  of  the 
Spanish  part  of  the  island."  It  is  very  liberal 
and  equitable  in  its  provisions,  and  we  see  no 
grounds  to  doubt,  if  it  is  justly  and  conscientious- 
ly administered  as  we  have  every  reason  to  be- 
lieve it  now  is,  that  the  rights  of  the  citizen  and 
the  foreign  resident  are  as  jealously  guarded  and 
amply  protected,  as  they  are  under  our  own. 
Slavery  has  not  existed  in  the  Spanish  part  of  the 
island  since  1808,  and  by  the  constitution  of  1844 
it  was  forever  prohibited  in   Dominica. 

To  the   Anglo-Saxon  race  more  perhaps  than 
to  any  other,  M'e  must  ascribe  the  grand  results 


CONCLUSIVK    SUMMARY.  143 

ill  civilization,  in  tlie  industrial  economies,  in  com- 
merce and  finance,  in  machinery  and  inventions, 
in  knowledge  and  free  institutions  and  in  the  arts 
and  sciences,  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Through 
its  agency  more  than  that  of  any  other  race  this 
tide  of  progress  has  so  covered  Christendom  and 
arisen  to  its  present  hight.  The  day  and  the 
hour  forbid  that  its  herculean  energies  and  its 
inherent  genius  and  skill,  should  any  longer  ex- 
clude the  wastes  of  Dominica  from  its  theatres  of 
enterprize.  In  the  dimly  discerned  grand  Moial 
and  Divine  order  of  the  Universe,  by  which  the 
Almighty  weighs  the  actions  of  men,  balances 
the  destinies  of  nations  and  over-rules  their  ini- 
quities, Spanish  St.  Domingo  has  already  done  a 
long  and  cruel  penance  for  its  cities  founded" in 
cupidity  and  bloodshed,  its  immolations  of  the 
innocent  on  the  altars  of  avarice  and  its  plains 
drenched  with  fratricidal  carnage.  The  equities 
of  Heaven's  Chancery  have  been  meeted  out  to  it 

in  sore  afflictions  for  generations.  That  this  gem 
of  the  Western  Seas  will  sooner  or  later,  through 
the  enterprize  of  the  Anglo-American  be  rescued 
from  desolation,  its  valleys  and  plains  transform- 
ed into   elysian  gardens  and   blooming  fields,  its 


144  DOMINICA. 

mountains  made  to  yield  their  golden  stores  and 
its  now  solitary  rivers  and  pensive  bays  throng- 
ed with  commerce,  is  inevitable — So  concludes 
a  book  designed  to  further  that  consummation, 
and  written  exclusively  in  the  interests  of  hu- 
manity. 


ni 

irCl 


ether  things,  of  the  form  of  heaven  in  general  and  in  particular,  of  the  innumer.. 
societies  of  which  the  whole  heaven  coDsi.'^ts.  and  of  the  correspondence  bitween  thv 
thicgs  of  heaven  and  those  of  earth  ;  of  the  Sun  of  heaven,  and  the  liglit  and  heat 
thence  proceeding  ;  of  representative  appearances  in  heaven  and  of  the  changes  of 
state  experienced  by  the  angeLs  ;  of  their  garments  and  habitations,  their  language 
and  writings,  their  innocence  and  wisdom,  their  government,  wor.-hip.  and  state  of 
peace  ;  of  tbe  origin  of  the  angelic  heaven,  and  its  conjunction  witli  the  human  race 
by  means  of  the  Word  ;  of  the  state  of  the  Heathen  and  young  children,  of  the  rich 
and  poor,  and  of  the  wise  and  simple,  in  heaven  ;  of  the  occupat  ons  of  the  angels  ; 
of  heavenly  joy  and  happiness  ;  and  of  the  immensity  of  heaven.  It  al.-^o  treats  of  the 
World  of  {?pirits,  or  first  state  of  man  after  death,  and  the  successive  changes  which 
he  has  to  pass  through  subsequently ;  of  the  nature  of  hell,  and  the  tru<-  fcripture 
signification  of  the  devil,  satan  hell  fire,  and  the  gnashing  of  teeth  ;  of  the  »ppenr- 
ance,  situation  and  plurality  of  the  hells  ;  and  of  the  dreadfu'.  wickedness  and  direful 
arts  of  infernal  spirits; — piesenting  altogether  a  rational  and  complete  system  of 
Pneumatology.  and  one  in  perfect  harmony  with  the  teachings  of  Holy  Scripture. 

The  True  Christian  Religion,  containing  the  Universal 

Theology  of  the  New  Church,  foretold  hy  the  Lord  in  the  Apocalypse 
xxi.  1,  2,  (with  the  Coronis  and  a  copious  Index.  1  Vol.  pp.  982. 
Price,  $1.25.     Postage,  52  cts.) 

is   volume — the  last   that  Swedenborg   wrote — contains  a  summary   of  all  the 
iipal  doctrines  of  the  Xew  Church,  signified  by  the  New  Jerusalem  in  the  Apoca- 
.se.     It  is  divided  into  fourteen  chapters,  which  treat  of  the  following  subjects  in  a 
simple  and  lucid  style,  and  wi'h  crnvincing  argument.     I. — God.  the  Creator.     11  — 
.le  i.ord,  the  Redeemer.    HI. — The  Holy  Spirit  and  tbe  Divine  Operation  (treating  aUo 
the  Divine  Trinity).     IV — The  Sacred  Scripture  or  Word  of  the  Loid.     V — The 
i/ecalogue  explained  as  to  its  external  iind  internal  vense.     VI. — Faith.     VII. — Charity 
and  good  works.     VIII. — Free  Will.     IX — Repentance.     X. — Reform. tion  and  tiegen- 
eration.    XI.— Imputation.    XII.— Bapti.sm     XIII.— The  Holy  Supper.    XIV —The  Con- 
summation of  the  Age,  the  Second  Coming  of  the  Lord,  the  New  Heaven  and  the  New 
Church. 

In  addition  to  this,  there  are  upwards  of  seventy  Memorable  Relations,  a  Supplement 
concerning  the  spiritual  world,  and  a  copious  Index  to  the  whole  work  of  about  100 
pages. 

Angelic  Wisdom  concerning  the  Divine  Providencv..     (1 

Vol.  pp.  274,  with  Alphabetical  Index.  Price,  45  cts.  Postage, 
21  cts.) 

This  work  treats  of  the  nature  and  operations  of  the  Divine  Providence  and  unfolds 
the  laws  of  order  according  to  which  God's  moral  governmeni  is  regulated.  It  shows 
that  the  Divine  Providence  has  for  an  end  a  heaven  of  angels  from  the  human  race  ; 
that  it  works  not  at  random,  but  according  to  certain  invariable  Laws  which  are  here 
disclosed  ;  that  it  is  universal,  extending  to  the  least  things  as  well  as  to  the  greatest ; 
that  in  all  it  does,  it  has  respect  to  whnt  is  eternal  with  man,  and  to  things  temporary 
only  for  the  sake  of  what  is  eternal  ;  that  the  laws  of  Permission  are  al.so  among  the 
laws  of  the  Divine  Providence  ;  tliat  evils  are  permitted  for  tho  sake  of  the  end,  which 
is  salvation  ;  that  the  Divine  Providence  is  equally  with  the  wicked  and  the  good  ; 
that  every  man  may  be  reformed,  and  that  theie  is  no  such  thing  as  prelestination  ; 
that  the  Lord  cannot  act  against  the  Laws  of  his  Providence,  because  to  act  again>t 
them,  would  be  to  act  against  his  Divine  Love  and  his  Divine  Wisdom,  consequently 
against  Himself. 

Tliese  and  other  topics  of  a  kindred  nature  are  treated  in  an  exhaustive,  and  at  tho 
•ame  time  lucid  and  masterly  manner,  in  this  volume. 

Conjugial  Love  and  its  Chaste  Delights  ;  also  Adulterous 

Love  and  its  Sinful  Pleasures,  (1  Vol.,  with  Alphabetical  Index. 

Price,  75  cts.  Postitge,  31  cts.) 
A  work  which  treats  of  the  relation  of  the  sexes,  and  the  indissoluble  nature  of 
true  marriage  ;  of  the  nature  and  origin  of  love  truly  conjugial  ;  ol  the  marriage  of 
the  Lord  and  tbe  Church,  and  its  correspondence  ;  of  the  conjunction  of  souls  by 
marriage,  so  that  they  are  no  longer  two,  but  one  Hejh  ;  of  the  change  of  the  state  of 
life  with  both  sexes  by  marriage  ;  of  the  causes  of  disalTection,  Kepurations.  and  di- 
-  vorces  in  marriage  ;  of  the  causes  of  apparent  love,  friendship  and  favor  in  marriages  ; 
andof  iterated  marriages.  To  which  is  added  a  treatise  on  Adulterous  or  Scortator'- 
Ijove  in  its  various  degrees,  showing  it  to  be  in  its  nature  the  very  opposite  of  Con- 
gialLove — as  opposite  as  the  natural  man  is  to  the  spiritual,  or  as  heaven  is  to  he' 


-iTigelic  Wisdom  concerning  the  Divine  Love,  and  the 

Divine  Wisdom.     (I    Vol.     pp.  180,    with  Index.     Price,  35  cts. 
Postage,  16  cts.)  *' 

This  work  contains  the  wi.sdom  of  tVie  anyeU  concerning  the  oporation  or  outwork- 
ing of  the  Divine  love  anfi  the  Divine  Wisdom  in  tjie  creation  of  the  universe,  in- 
cluding man  as  the  chief  end  of  creation.  It  expl->in.s  the  nature  of  the  Ditine 
I'rinity,  al.sD  of  the  trinity  in  men  and  imgels  and  all  things  finite,  which  imagi.-s  the 
Divine.  t  unfolds  also  the  Doctrine  of  De^ree^,  and  explaius  the  tluee  di.scr'-te  de- 
grees of  the  hrnman  mind,  showing  when  and  by  what  means  these  are  opened,  and 
what  is  effecteffby  their  opening.  It  further  reveaU  the  oiigia  oi  evil  uses,  also  the 
origin,  design,  and  tendency  Of  good  uses.  It  is  of  this  work  or  of  the  '■  Doctrine  of 
Degrees"  herein  .di-scussed,  that  the  author  of  the  '■  Fori-gleams  of  Immnrt'i^y  " 
say.s  :  "  When  the  readergets  the  pith  of  its  philosophy,  he  sews  the  amazing  *weep 
of  the  principle  set  forth,  and  its  constructive  power  in  theology,  and  that  by  m.ssing 
it  every  school  of  materialists  Has  stuck  fast  to  the  earth. " 

Miscellaneous  Theological  Works  ;  containing  The  New 

Jerusalem  and  its  Heavenly  Doctrine  ;  Brief  Exposition  ;  Intercourse 
l>et\veen  the  Soul  and  the  Body  ;  The  Last  Judgment,  and  Continu- 
ation ;  The  White   Horse,  and  Earths  in  the  Universe,  (making  a 
Vol.  of  526  pp.     Price,  75  cts.     Postage,  3P  cts.) 
The  fir.st  of  these  contains  a  summary  statement  of  the  doctrines  of  the  New  Church 
with  copious  references  to  the  Arcana  where  the  .same  doctrines  are  more  fully  un- 
folded.   The  second  exhibit-i  some  of  the  more  important  of  these  doctrines  in  contrast 
with  those  of  t^ie  Former  Chrisii^n  Church.     The  thiid  treats  of  Influx   showing  how 
the  spiritual  tiow^  into  the  material,  and  tne  manner  in  which  the  ^oul  operate-i  upon 
the  buily.     The  fourth  explain*  the  nature  and  manner  of  the  Last  General  Judgment, 
which  occurred  in  the  World  of  Spirits  in  1T57.  when  also  the  Sew  Dispensation  known 
as  the  .New  Jerusalem,  commenced.     The  fifth  unfolds  the  spiriiual  meaning  of  the 
White  Horse  m-ntioned   in  the  Aoocilypse,  and  cont.iins  copious  references  to  the 
Arcina  where  the  subject  is  further  elucidated.    The  .sixth  describes  the  appe.irance, 
character,  and  mode  o(  lite  of  the  inhabitants  of  o  her  earths,  with  whom  the  author 
became  acquainted  through  his  intercourse  with  spirits  from  those  earths. 

The  Four  Leading  Doctrines  of  the  New  Church — viz.> 

Concerning  the  Lord  ;  the  Sacred  Scripture  ;  Faith  ;  and  '  ife.   Also' 

Answers  to  Nine  Questions  chiefly  relating  to  the  Lord,  the  Trinity' 

and  the  Holy  Spirit.     (1  Vol.     Price,  45  cents.     Postage,  21  cents .> 

XoTE — The  foregoing  list  comprises  all  the  Works  published  by  Swedenbnrg  himself 

during  his  lifetime.     The  prices  affixed  to  each,  barely  cover  the  cost  of  paper,  printing 

andblnditig:  and  the  .Soiety.  theiefore,  neither*givfs  credit  nar  makes  any  discount 

on  its  sales.     Persons  buying  to  .sell  again  are  eatitled  to  charge  an  advance  sufiSclent 

to  reimburse  them  for  their  trouble  and  expense.?. 


COLLATERAL  NEW  CHURCH  WORKS 

FOR   SALE, 

AT  ROOM  NO.  20,  COOPEPv  INSTITUTE,  NEW  YORK. 

The  following  is  a  list  of  some  of  the  collateral  writings  of  the  New 
Church,  which  are  thonsjht  to  be  amon'2c  the  most  useftil  in  explaining 
its  doctrines  to  minds  hitherto  unfamiliar  with  th(;m.  We  are  compelled 
by  our  narrow  space  to  omit  many  works  whicTT-we  should  like  to  include. 

Noble's  Appeal  ic  behalf  of  th^  Doctrines  of  the  New 

Church,  Pnoe.  '^S  '.;ents. — A  work  generally  regarded  as  the  cheap- 
est, ablest,  and  best  ever  written  in  doiense  of  the  Doctrines  of  the 
New  Jerusalem. 

Noble's  Plenary  Inspiration  of  the  Scriptures  Asserted, 

and  the  Principles  of  ,t}v'ji;-i^QppositJon  Xt\v:estigated.  With  Appen- 
di.x,  illustrative  and  Britical.  -  Price,  ^1.66. 

UNIVERS-S  CY  O-^-  (   ■       '  -'INIA 


UCLA-Yoiing   Research    Library 

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